HETALIA: THE LOST ONES
by FyreStorm56
Summary: The zombie apocalypse has revenged the countries and left the countries stranded in the middle of Kentucky. When three girls meet them at gun point and bring them into their home, how will they cope? Can they handle killing people who used to be part of them? Are they still countries? Can they even be infected? (the crossover is that I took the zombies from the last of us- no ppl)
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

TRANSPORT

"I cannot believe that they just left us in this hole of a city," Arthur complained for the thousandth time, making the others groan in unison.

"It didn't used to be a hole, I keep telling you that dude," Alfred shouted back at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It clearly was," Arthur shot back, "in case you haven't noticed there aren't any of those bloody monsters anywhere near here. Even they had the common sense to stay away."

"We are in Kentucky dude, there weren't that many people here anyway…except in the larger cities, ya know?" Alfred shrugged, his heart suddenly pinged with guilt and worry.

It all happened two weeks ago, two weeks ago an incident happened in Russia…China…maybe even America, no one really knows where everything started…but what matters is that it spread. Starting two weeks ago, or it could have been three now, Alfred was starting to lose track of time; he guessed it didn't really matter in the end, but people started coming down with a sickness. A sickness that made them violent, angry…they started to eat each other. It was everywhere, in every country and nothing could stop them. By the end of the first week that the CDC tried tests, hundreds were infected and hundreds more were dead.

The countries decided on a meeting, something had to be done. Countries were all on edge, the one with the least damage at the moment and still to this day had been America, so that is were they went. Frankfort, Kentucky, that's where the meeting was held. A tiny little city that held the National Treasury, a place ready for any time lock down and people were always prepared. Well, they had been.

Alfred shook his head. Memories of men and women flooding the room, telling them how to escape, that they should run, because they were important people. It was disgusting to think upon it now, how they had been considered not even a month ago more important then dozens of other people that had been killed there.

Now, their leaders, none of them, would spare them a second glance or even an attempt of rescue. He was sure it was because they thought that the countries were dissolving. He was sure they were too, just more slowly then expected. Nothing was left of them but the rich, the stubborn and the world leaders that were refusing comment or help.

So instead of waiting for their leaders to come for them, even after they had refused the first time, they decided to move on. Wondering through the backwaters of this place that used to be Kentucky, hoping that they would find something to see them through to the next day. Not that it mattered really, because they were countries and they wouldn't die from something simple like lack of food or clean water. They were much more likely to get eaten alive, which made everything more dreadful.

"Where do you think we are?" Yao spoke up, wiping the sweat from his forehead, sure his country was hotter but Kentucky had much more humidity.

"We started in Frankfort, honestly there is no telling now," Alfred answered honestly, no point in lying when they could die at any time anyway, right?

"And there has always been this much woods in this place?" Kiku asked. He had never considered Kentucky to be a completely forested place, not that he had ever put much thought into it before, but this part of Kentucky that they were traveling had only hills and trees. The wild creatures in it's depths didn't stir as they walked past them, he was sure that they had learned in the past two weeks that their were now humans that would fight them, eat them, just as they did them once.

"In parts," Alfred sighed, jumping down from another small ledge until they finally hit flat ground again, "Some areas of Kentucky had woods for miles, honestly it's one of the better places to be at a time like this."

"As if any Americans thought there would be," Frances broke in, hands on hips as he finally took his first full breath. He wasn't used to hiking and he wasn't as young as he once was, this was all so tiring, but he knew they couldn't stop now. That was not an option.

"More then you'd think," Alfred disagreed, "there were people with real plans, some probably worked while others most likely didn't."

"We should keep going," Ludwig interjected after helping the Italy brothers down from the ledge, "it isn't safe to stop yet."

"What we need to find is some form of transport, da?" Ivan added, tilting his head to the side slightly.

Ivan had thought this had gone on too long, he had been right about nuclear strikes, he was sure though now he knew it was too late. In all of the places he had to be stuck in it had to be America, not just America one of the southern states of America where it was actually hot. He had already shed his jacket, tying it around his waist and refusing to part with it, much like the others; America…Alfred…he guessed he should call him now, approved of this, telling them this was Kentucky the weather changes fast and they never knew when they would need them again. This entire situation made his skin crawl.

"Yeah," Alfred agreed, refusing to think of the fact that he had just agreed with Russia of all people, "we need something to get us out of the forests, somewhere with food and shelter."

"We are in the forest Alfred," Arthur snapped, "do you really think that we would find some mode of transportation here."

"People fled Arthur," Alfred reminded him in a solemn tone, "they would have went to the woods, there is probably at least something here we could use if we looked hard enough."

"Like right there," Feliciano smiled, pointing to a thicket that lay just ahead of the group, "there is a nice truck."

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

"Right there, itsa truck!" Feliciano repeated, walking forward and moving into the thicket without looking, causing the group to curse; one day he was going to get them all killed not looking like that, it was no telling what was in that…

"See right here!" he announced loudly, the dull thump of someone's hands hitting metal followed, "itsa truck."

The group looked at each other for a moment, shock gathering on their faces as they too rushed into the clearing. Sure enough, Feliciano was right, in front of him was a large, red truck…but there was no telling what was inside… "Feli," Alfred spoke calmly, his mind wondering a few steps ahead unlike what everyone thought him capable of, "could you step away from there for a sec."

"Sure!" he brightly agreed, wondering back to Ludwig's side.

"Ivan…could you…" he pointed to the truck, hoping to have to not ask the full question, "with me?"

Ivan nodded back at him, understanding and being just as equally unwilling to actually agree with him. The pair moved quickly, Alfred on the driver's side and Ivan on the other, glancing in the back windows and then moving to the…

Alfred paused, the click of a gun and the feel of cold metal on his cheek making him straighten, "Don't touch the truck," the order was said sweetly from the interior, but the guns pressed against both men's head from out stretched arms…those weren't very sweet at all.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

ALLIES

"Shit," Alfred cursed under his breath, hearing much of the same sentiments from Ivan. "We aren't going to hurt you."

"I clearly am not worried about that," the girl said, he could hear the smile in her voice, "and you should at least look at me if you are going to talk to me."

Alfred cursed again before turning his head to look at the woman…damn, she was barely a woman, young woman then. She looked to be in her twenties, he knew better then to guess however, her skin was the color of cocoa, her lips were set in a firm line that lead his gaze eventually up to a set of hard brown eyes. Her hair was in braid, pulled back in a way that looked like she had done so in the past few minutes. A tee shirt, green, with a tree on it that lead down to some sort of dark jeans, but none of that was his concern. What was his concern was the pair of well-maintained shotguns that she held in each hand and was pointed at each of their faces.

"At least you didn't stare at my breasts," she said approvingly, "What are you all doing out here?"

"We are trying to find shelter and a car, we thought it was empty, we meant no harm," Alfred explained quickly, knowing that it would be simply easier to over power the girl but she had the guns.

"Then step back," she ordered, shifting the gun slightly.

Both men did, sharing a look of frustration through the car windows. They were both clearly thinking if it would be easier just to capture her and take the car, capture because Alfred couldn't think of leaving one of his own citizens out in the forest alone. A swift sigh escaped Alfred's lips, this was all about to become very messy and very loud.

"Char!" another voice made them jump, though the girl with the guns just smirked, her gaze not wavering from Alfred and her aim not faltering.

"Still in the truck!" she called back, clearly she had allies and this was not something Alfred wanted to deal with.

"And who are these guys?" the other girl hissed and suddenly he saw a blade at Ivan's throat.

She was the same, a young woman, in her twenties, too young to be out here worrying about this foolishness. Her hair was a mess of red-brown curls that were tied back in a similarly messy bun sticking out from her head. Her skin was pale or rather he guessed it was because at the moment she was sporting a hell of a sunburn that turned her face more red then any other color. Her blue…no green…no they were blue matched the hardness that was in the first woman's, Charm? He guessed was her name. Then the was the band tee shirt she wore, that was too faded to read clearly and jean shorts that lead to a pair of tennis shoes. She had a bag thrown over one shoulder, a burlap sack that Alfred didn't even know existed anymore was filled to the brim with something he couldn't see.

"Stragglers, I'm guessing," Charm shrugged, "they needed a ride and thought ours was empty."

"Well clearly it isn't," she said firmly, "I would suggest you take your leave."

"So you are just going to leave us out here…"

"Wait, where's sissy?" Charm broke into Alfred's plea for humanity with a question that suddenly set her spine straight, "Why isn't she with you?"

"We caught a few stranglers in there too, just not the human kind," the girl answered, "She is taking them out as we speak."

"And you left her alone in there?" Charm snarled at the other girl, her hand tightening around her gun ominously.

"I didn't have the hands to help and there were only two…you know Storm, she wanted to get rid of them quickly," the girl shrugged casually, as if this was a normal conversation between them.

"Well go ahead and put the stuff in the back," Charm sighed, looking away from Alfred for just a moment, that was all he needed to take the gun and throw her out…but he didn't move. He didn't know why, but some part of him couldn't justify stealing everything that these girls had at the moment.

"You guys aren't alone, are you?" the second girl asked, not even looking up as she took the knife away from Ivan's throat (which was immediately replaced by Charm's gun) and walked quickly to the back of the truck, tossing the stuff inside the large area.

"What do you…" Alfred started, attempting to deny the accusation when Charm looked up at him sharply.

"The big guy behind me keeps looking in the corner," Charm sighed.

"She sees everything, don't question it," a third voice broke in right when both Alfred and Ivan open their mouths to speak.

Ivan was confused, he was sure that the woman's complete attention was on Alfred the entire time they were 'being held captive', but apparently he was wrong. It was at that moment he caught her eyes in the side view mirror of the truck, a smug smile tugging at her lips. Ivan said nothing however, turning quickly to the new woman entering the picture.

She was short, shorter then he would expect by a woman that looked around the same age as the others. Her brown hair was cropped short to her head, a pixie cut if Ivan remembered the American term correctly, her skin was pale as well, and with another set of brown eyes, though her's seemed to be dancing with some sort of energy. She wore a shirt, a white button up, much like the ones that the countries were all wearing, with her sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Blue jean shorts…it seemed as if that was all the American's had left to wear and a brown pair of boots of some kind. What drew his attention however was none of these things, but the blooded baseball bat the girl had slung over her shoulder and the small gun at her hip.

"Sissy!" Charm's held a note of scolding as she glanced over at the girl harshly, "You shouldn't be killing these things by yourself."

"It was only a few!" Sissy/Storm whined.

"A few? Bee said it was two," Charm's voice went cold, eyes narrowing at both of the girl's who put their hands up in defense.

"A few is two right?"

"Dude, I don't know you and I can tell you are lying," Alfred broke into the conversation suddenly, his voice exasperated. He was tired of standing here, if these girls weren't going to help them, he would like to move on already, "And no, we are not alone we have a group of people over there. We are all hungry, lost and unarmed. We wondered here from Frankfort, Kentucky."

All three of the girl's turned to him sharply, "Dude, you know you've only walked 64 miles, right?" Storm laughed, looking at him strangely, "How long have you guys been walking? You must have a pretty small group."

"Guys?" Alfred called out to the others with a sigh, waving his arm to tell them to come up to the truck.

The girls' eyes widened comically as they took in the larger group, Alfred and Ivan couldn't suppress a chuckle. They were probably shocked, they most likely hadn't seen a group of twelve people in at least a month, and less likely a group this large that would stick together through this. "They are our friends," Ivan said smugly.

"You guys have a lot of friends," Bee choked out, finally breaking out of the shock.

"Why is one of your friends crying?" Storm whispered not so subtly into Ivan's…probably was as close as she could get to his ear.

They all looked at Feli, knowing immediately who would be crying in this situation. "It's because you are all so bella and so scary! Like the women in Germany only not German."

The girls stifled the laughter, Storm giving a triumphant grin as she mumbled something about proving she was really German. "I…" Storm opened her mouth to speak again, when the sudden groan like noise came from the bushes, "have to go."

"Come on," Charm ordered, watching as Bee ran to the front jumping into the seats along with Charm, who had finally lowered her guns and started the truck.

Storm jumped in the bed of the truck tossing in a bag that she had apparently had hidden behind her legs. Then she looked over expectantly at the group that stood awkwardly next to the truck itself as another moan, louder this time, echoed through the thicket. "So what are you guys waiting for?" she questioned, her face pinched in confusion.

"Wha…" Feli opened his mouth to answer when Charm cut him off.

"We aren't leaving all of you to die!" she snapped, "none of you have weapons that we can see and knowing my sissy she drew a crowd."

"So get in before we change our minds!" Bee snapped, then her eyes sliding over the group with a smile, "The one with the polar bear has to sit up front though!"

"You noticed me?" Matthew asked, his head perking up at his mention and a grin on his face.

"You heard her bro, let's go guys!" Alfred declared, quickly helping the others in while Matthew climbed into the front seat and Storm, because she declared there was no room left decided to sit on the lap of Alfred himself when he jumped in.

"Okay! Hold on!" Charm shouted, just as the first zombies came into view, "This is going to be bumpy!"

"It can't be that…" Arthur's voice was cut off with a mild howl as the truck took off almost leaving him behind after the take off.

"It get's worse! I would hold on!" Storm grinned, waving goodbye to the zombies as they went.


	3. Chapter 3

p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"CHAPTER THREE/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"SHELTER/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"It wasn't a long ride, but it certainly was a bumpy one. Storm had warned them, giggling all the while but Arthur still managed to puke over the side of the truck more then once and Frances was positively green. Alfred and Feli however seemed to be enjoying the ride as well, even getting Antonio, Gilbert and Romano to hold their hands up at certain large bumps and whine when the ride was actually over./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Sissy, one more bump," Storm demanded, leaning over the side of the truck and over Lovino's head, making him go red as her breasts were basically covering his face./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""No, sissy, gas, remember?" Charm sighed, jumping out of the truck and making everyone realize how short she was as well./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""But sissy, I could always siphon some out of cars in the city," Storm whined, falling limply against the outside of the truck and shoving Lovino's head into her chest and halfway throwing him out of the truck bed./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Maybe next time," Charm chuckled, glancing at the basically upside Lovi whose face was red enough to rival the truck in color, "comfortable there…" she paused unsure of his name./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""His name is Lovi!" Antonio called out to her, "My name is Antonio, but you can call me Toni!"/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"Charm laughed again, enjoying the man's bright smile and excitement, "We should get inside soon and by soon I mean now."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""And then I get to tell them the rules right?" Bee smiled, leaning over Charm's lap./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Yeah, yeah, you get to say the rules this time."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Yes!" Bee cheered quietly, thrusting a fist in the air and grinning back at the boys. It almost made Gilbert warm, he hadn't seen a human smile like that in a long time, until suddenly her face dropped, a frown tugging at her lips before she quickly turned away. "Yeah, let's get inside."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"Suddenly the air changed around the girls, everything was serious and none of the countries knew or understood what happened but it was immediate. Storm sat up quickly, putting a large gap of space between herself and the people that she had once been teasing in the back of the truck. The sparkle disappeared from Charm's eyes as she slammed the door to the cab and moved to the door. Bee grabbed the bag out of the back without looking up and without waiting for Storm to follow with the other bag./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Okay, what just happened?" Alfred questioned, turning quickly to the others, "You all saw that right?"/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""They seem to be sad," Yao said awkwardly though compassion was seen in his eyes, "I wonder why…" br /br /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Well they are alone," Gilbert sighed, jumping out of the truck and offering the Italian twins a hand, "They probably lost a lot of people."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""And they haven't seen any of us before," Kiku added, watching as the girls waited patiently next to the door, "they could be unsure of their safety."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Unsure of their safety!" Arthur burst out, looking completely shocked, "We are people they shouldn't be afraid of us!"/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""But they are," Antonio sighed, taking note that someone else noticed the slight discomfort./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""We are keeping the women waiting," Frances noted, watching as the countries quickly jumped out of the truck on that note./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""We are sorry," Ludwig apologized stiffly as the groups finally converged, "We stared…"/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Talking?" Storm offered offhandedly./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Having second thoughts?" Bee questioned with a raised brow./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Because we would rather know before we show you anything," Charm added with a snap to her voice./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"br /"She's right, redoing key codes is a pain we would rather avoid."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""No!" Feliciano shouted suddenly, jumping up to the women, throwing his arms around the one that was nearest to him and burying his face into her chest, "Please don't turn us away! We haven't seen people in so long!"/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"Storm stiffened, feeling the smallest male wrap his arms around her waist, his face so close to her rapidly beating heart. She liked hugs, she always had, but she hadn't exactly had much time to think about them since everything happened, she felt her heart melting slightly. She pulled a face, she was so weak for falling for this!/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""We didn't say we were turning you away!" Bee snapped, firmly placing her hand on the Italian and shoving him away./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Come on before we do," Charm sighed, looking over at Storm who was still pulling her usual 'stink face' with a grimace, "Bee show them in, I've got to take care of something really quick."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"Bee nodded slowly, mimicking the expression on concern on Charm's face before waving the men over to the keypad. "So this lock will stay with the same pattern until you guys take your leave, get kicked out or all turn," she said the words in an overly loud tone to cover the sound of conversation coming from Charm and Storm's direction, "It will be four digits and you will not forget it because you will not be let back in without it…no matter what."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"The nations faces creased with concern, not only at the fact that these girls seemed almost overly cautious, which considering their situation they didn't know was possible, but the fact that they continued to react strangely to everything that had occurred. They all knew survival tactics, ways to get through any situation including this one if they could find the right resources, but this was to the extreme. These girls were guarded, fully stocked and completely and utterly assured in how everything would turn out…like they had been through this before./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Chicka, if you don't mind me asking…" Antonio broke in, trying to stutter out the question that he knew was plaguing everyone./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""If you need to say that before hand then I probably mind," Bee answered, not turning away from the keypad, "You don't need to know us any better then you do right now. Except maybe the weapons we use and that we will use them on you just as easy as the zombies so don't force our hand."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"The countries nodded solemnly, they had guessed correctly then. Humans here or someone that they cared about had forced their hand. They had lost people here and yet they still tried to help them…it was odd but they didn't appreciate them any less. "We are sorry," Arthur said sincerely, "Please continue."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Good," Bee nodded approvingly, "The code for the moment is 0713, it will change every month so do not forget to ask before and if you go on runs like we are about to have to do."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""What do you mean a run?" Alfred questioned, tilting his head slightly but refusing to say no to any request from the women that had saved them./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"Bee punched in the numbers before waving over the other two girls and opening the door. "We have to go back into a city for more gas and more supplies. We haven't had to take care of this many people and anyone here is required to help us. There are no freeloaders."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""She's right," Storm agreed appearing behind them and forcing her way through the door to the unknown building, "all of us pull our own weight and you are guests and expected to pull just as much."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""So we are dropping these bags off in the armory and heading back to what was once town," Charm concluded, hustling the group into the metal door before closing it firmly./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Armory? Is that what this?" Alfred questioned, looking around quickly at the cold metal walls, "I thought that the army was holding these down."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""They were," Charm sighed, leading the group further into the hall with orange/yellow lights./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Until the zombies got here first," Bee added, opening another door and leading the group into a large open metal room./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""We cleared everyone out and took over," Storm finished, tossing her bag to the floor, "Also this is where we sleep."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"The countries looked around, noting the cots of dozens of blankets and pillows, some with stuffed animals tossed on them. The books were piled in corners and notebooks and pens strewn about in a haphazard fashion. Weapons lined the back wall in an orderly fashion and they were all cleaned thoroughly as if they were prized possessions, the countries had no doubt that they were. This was there home now apparently, just a pile of belongs and clothes in the middle of a huge metal room with four doors…it panged something in the heart of all the countries…they were too young for this sort of life./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""What are you staring at?" Bee questioned, grabbing a sword from the weapon wall and belting it, Storm mimicked her gesture with an axe./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Come on, let's go," Charm ordered, watching Storm pack her own small handgun before waving them out, "The tour is later."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Yep now it's food," Bee sighed./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""And more zombie killing," Storm said brightly, nudging her with her hip./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Right and more zombie killing," Bee agreed with a weak smile./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""Let's go then dudes," Alfred followed them closely, the countries at their heels./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"The group replied themselves back on the truck and Storm leaned back on the wall, "You guys better be ready," she half smiled, "because I don't save any damsels in distress."/span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';"br /Alfred grinned up at her, feeling a small connection with the words, "Don't worry dude, I'm the hero," he said in reply./span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';" /span/p  
p class="x_MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria;"span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter Condensed';""You better be," she said softly in turn. /span/p 


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

FOOD

Matthew could easily say that he was always forgotten, not usually, not sometimes, always, until this happened. In this situation he would gladly would want to be invisible, not to be seen by humans and zombies alike…well they weren't exactly calling them zombies, well not the countries anyhow. When ever the countries saw one of their own people as one of those things…they couldn't bring themselves to call them the name of a creature that had haunted the big screens for years.

He was still mildly forgotten. His friends and family that had been stuck at this meeting continued to forget that he was following them around, a gun placed firmly on his belt in case on of the others were too slow to draw against a infected person…that's what they were calling them, denial and hope were strong for a cure in their hearts…but they could all feel it. It was all just a matter of time until they faded or worse, became the infected themselves and completely immune to any weapons that the remaining humans had left.

He was still invisible…even when he had taken out the only zombie they had encountered, except for that one second that Alfred looked at him with betrayed eyes before looking at the floor in acceptance. Then those girls saw him, pulled him into the front of their truck when they could have chosen to keep their friend in there. He knew they didn't do it out of kindness for him…he knew they saw the same thing he saw in them; fear and determination…determination to do what ever it took to survive with their friends intact.

He couldn't help but think the first time he saw them that he had a much better chance, even when he saw their stronghold. These girls however, when once again shoving him into the cab and slamming the door with a firm click of locks, were not fools. They had him there not because they had kinship in these emotions, but because they were watching him.

They were taking no chances, not even when Charm took the wheel and began to drive back to the city; he could feel Bee gently poking him in the side with Charm's shotguns in warning. They would have no issues killing him and he would have none returning the favor if they were foolish enough to shoot. However, hearing his brother exchange a few sparse words with the girl in the back gave him pause. He would do nothing yet, these girls weren't infected and as welcoming as they could have been in the situation.

"You know we are only going to welcome you guys for so long, correct?" Bee asked the question offhandedly.

"I am not stupid enough to think we would be welcomed permanently," Matt chuckled bitterly.

"Good," Charm said sharply, "We made alliances before, let's just say they didn't work out. Neither would you guys staying."

"I thought that you said we didn't need to know anything more about you guys?"

"Just thought that we would explain that we aren't heartless," Bee sighed, the gun poked his side again, "We just refuse to die because we were helping you guys."

"Wouldn't expect you too."

"You'd be surprised what people think now," Charm said in turn.

"People haven't been normal for a long time," Matt sighed, leaning his head back against the small window that they could peer out of and see the others, "I thought that everyone knew that."

"We did," Bee agreed, looking down at her hands as she clenched and unclenched them, "but now it's all in the open…and we don't just mean people eating each other."

"So, hugs?" Matt changed the subject, trying to avoid getting shot while in the cab for upsetting one of the two.

"Do not hug us," Bee said sharply, saying it like something she was used to repeating over and over.

"I'm talking about the girl in the back," Matt explained, "does she not like hugs?"

"Why do you think that?" Charm asked, attempting to sound offhanded, but the tightening her hands on the wheel showed something completely different.

"The face she pulled when Feliciano was hugging her, she was uncomfortable," Matt shrugged.

"She loves hugs," Charm disagreed.

"And we told you, you only need to know what we tell you," Bee growled, another poke of the gun made him release the subject and file it away.

"So where are we going then?" Matthew sighed, crossing his arms, touching his still beating heart as if to reassure himself it was still beating.

"Have you ever seen Eastern Kentucky University?" Bee questioned, her voice a murmur of sound.

"I don't exactly live in America," Matt sighed as his brother's country rolled of his tongue with previous disdain that made him feel guilty.

"As if the accent didn't give that away," Charm chuckled, turning sharply to the left and gaining a loud squeal followed by a chuckle from the back of the truck.

"So take that as a cue to explain," Matt grumbled, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Well the school was cleared out in the first few days of illness," Bee explained in a monotone voice, "most people using it as in excuse to not go to class…but then it changed when a girl in the dorms actually got infected. The army was there within the day for a major cleanout and when we say cleanout…we mean purge."

"What did the army do?" Alfred leaned over to speak into the window. He had caught the words about the army as the car was slowly rolling to it's stop in an almost empty parking lot.

Matt surveyed the area quickly. Three cars, all doors in all of them open to the dead air, the gas lids open which means that someone, most likely these girls had been siphoning gas from them for a while and was continuously checking for zombies within. A dusty, mud covered red truck with wheels that were too large and a small, beat up Buick that looked like it had once been gold were the two that were still whole…a half of a gray Chevy sat in the middle, like someone had taken something and cut it in two.

The question, he knew somewhere in the back of his mind was a bad question for Alfred to ask, these girls didn't know who he was and wouldn't sugar-coat or lie…but maybe this is what the others needed to know? He wasn't sure but he knew that if he asked again someone would answer. He shook his head quickly in Al's direction but his brother glared at him with hard eyes as he repeated the question.

"When a girl got infected they showed up," Storm answered, looking down at her hands before glancing up at Al with soft eyes, "We all thought that they were here to help. They were the army, you know?"

"Of course," Alfred nodded firmly, "They are the government, the citizens are supposed to trust it."

"Well they weren't here to help," Bee suddenly snapped, looking up at Alfred as if he had been living in some sort of dream world for the past few weeks, "they killed everyone on campus and anyone that they could catch up to that went here."

Alfred stiffened, his mouth falling open with shock before he started shaking his head, "That's impossible, they wouldn't have done that," he disagreed weakly, Matt could see the gears turning in his head as if to figure out what he could have done.

"Well the bodies on campus would say something different," Bee said bitterly.

"We were at school that day," Storm added, looking at Alfred as if wondering if he would really believe them, "we just so happened to have finished classes…we were in Bee's car when they showed up."

"We had to outrun the damned army!" Bee burst out, jumping out of the car suddenly and slamming the door.

"Had to ditch the car and make our way back to our apartment," Storm sighed, "the army has only gotten worse."

"Killing any person they see," Charm confirmed with a nod as she followed Bee's lead and slid out, allowing Matt to follow before grabbing her guns, "that's their job now."

"They say it's for the purification of those that could be infected," Bee continued, crossing her arms as she watched the group stare at her dumbfounded, "that includes apparently everyone."

"So if you see them, hide," Storm added firmly, jumping out of the truck and motioning for the others to follow, "if they find you, you won't stand a chance."

The countries stayed silent, exiting the truck and standing in a small group behind the girls. "Stay behind us and be aware," Charm ordered, "If you hear anything hide."

"Because if you didn't hear anything about the government you won't know anything about any type of zombies," Bee supplied, double-checking her knife and sword with quick assured movements.

"And we'd rather you not die from zombie attacks," Storm shrugged, attempting a smile as she stroked the edge of her gun, "heard it's quite unpleasant."

"We will follow your lead then," Ludwig agreed, nodding as he glanced back at the others.

The girls nodded as one before turning away and moving quickly through the parking lot and onto sidewalks that were scattered with black drops that no one wanted to decide what the cause was. The countries fell slightly behind, the aura around them stifling as they glanced at Alfred. "So do you think it is only the burger bastard's army doing this… or is it…" Lovino stopped, looking down with frustrated eyes and a groan.

"I am sure that…" Antonio attempted to sound comforting when he suddenly stopped, biting his lip and eyes wet, "I had a feeling before the meeting…I thought that something was…More people were dying and I…"

"So it wasn't just me," Arthur sighed, looking around the group as others nodded.

"Our countries have betrayed their people," Kiku said, his voice full of disgust, "What type of person can do this."

"People that are scared," Gilbert whispered, looking around at the broken windows of buildings that they were passing.

Doors were thrown open, books on the ground forgotten, glass littering the streets, it was like a riot had taken place…at least until the girls lead them to the cross walk. They stopped, turning to them quickly, before motioning to the street. The countries felt their mouths drop open at the sight that stood before them. Cars were backed up, a line up with busted tires from a line of army issue road spikes. Their windshields were smashed or littered with bullets, students lay in their cars, bodies covered in blood and decomposing…the flies and the smell…the countries were suddenly very glad of their wartime experiences hardening their gag reflexes or there would be a fresh trail for someone to follow.

"This isn't the worse part," Charm sighed, moving quickly to jump over a car to get to a free walking area and giving everyone a clear path.

"Most of the dorms are worse…" Storm agreed.

"We usually don't go too far in or too far up," Bee told them, "It's too easy to get caught by anything…and the…" she stopped, shuddering slightly.

Charm moved quickly, attempting to navigate around more of the glass and lost items, though the countries were thankful for the lack of bodies. She stopped at the shattered door of a smaller brick building, moving through the glass to open the door from the inside for the group. "This was Case Hall," she motioned around her, "Storm used to work here."

"Lost school funding and my job," she said, looking over the desk worker, much in the same position of the students in cars, before shivering, "Never thought I would see the day I would've been happy to lose such an easy job."

"We are going to the third floor," Bee opened the second door in their path, placing the brick that lay near it in it's path to hold it open, "Don't slam doors and don't talk."

"How are we supposed to get in?" Yao asked with a tilted head, losing sight of Storm as she disappeared into a third room and reappearing with hands full of keys.

"Take four a piece and we'll meet back down here in ten minutes," Storm smiled, moving around the group, "We aren't going to stay for too long and if you do we leave you!"

"That would go for any guest," Charm told them as she took her own keys, "We would risk our lives for each other our guests however…"

"So don't be late," Storm reiterated firmly, walking inside first and running up the stairs that were next to the doorway.

Bee followed next, not looking back as she ran up the steps two at a time, keys jangling at her side. Charm looked back at them with a smile of her own, "Please do not take this personally," she said sweetly, "we just can't…we are going to survive."

The countries nodded, they knew they couldn't blame them. They would the same if they were human, they would risk anything for each other, though they would loathe to admit it. They watched as she followed the same path up the concrete steps before following themselves slowly. "Get down sooner if you can," Ivan advised, "I would not doubt that they would leave us."

"I know that they would," Matt interjected.

"Don't worry," Gilbert soothed, attempting to sound cocky, "someone as awesome as me would never be late."

"You had best not be, mon amie," Frances chuckled with a slight smile over at his friend.

The group nodded to each other slightly before making their way into their own assigned rooms. Matt hadn't thought that they were going to a girl's floor, he was even less prepared for the mess in each room of frantic escape…it made his heart hurt to think of someone who could have once slept with one of the teddy bears that was laying on the floor, dead. He ignored the pain, digging through drawers and closets; gathering medicine and food, anything he thought could be useful. He piled the noodles and dried mashed potatoes into a small bag he had emptied for a room along with Tylenol and rubbing alcohol. It wasn't much, but he supposed it was enough for his four rooms.

He had just walked into a hallway when a loud scream echoed through the corridor. He stiffened quickly before rushing towards the sound; he however was not the only one as he was joined by the rest of the countries, bags over shoulders running to the end of the long hall. The screaming continued as the group stopped outside the door, they yanked it open to show Feliciano cowering in a vacant corner of the room.

"What's wrong?" Bee questioned, her footsteps echoing through the hall as she and the other girls stood beside them.

The group looked up as Feliciano pointed shakily at the fallen bunk beds, where a shrill squeal and clicking noise was originating. "Clicker," Storm whispered, "they can't see so they use their sonar noises."

"They have been sick the longest and it only takes them grabbing you for you to die, because you would never be able to get away,'' Charm finished explaining.

The group couldn't take their eyes away from the sight in front of the beds. What lay under it, supposedly half squished by the fallen beds was a woman…or what once was one. It face was bulbous, swollen with infection that turned it both pink and a rotten green color. Its mouth was open wide, showing the group the sharpened teeth that lined the inside of it's mouth drawing attention up to the eyes…or lack thereof. It's hair hang on it's head in random strands, clothes hanging off of the clawing arms in tatters.

"You were lucky that it was trapped," Bee said firmly, moving into the room and unsheathing her sword, "I'll take care of it, you guys get to the car."

"Come on Feliciano," Ludwig called, motioning for the crying man with a small gesture before giving up and gathering the man into his arms.

"Don't worry," Charm whispered, placing a hand on his head, "We won't leave you alone again and we all seem to have enough food for a while."

"Let's get back to the car," Storm whispered, motioning them out with a wave, "before anything else shows up."

The group exited quickly, but Matt looked back just as the door was closing. He saw Bee's eyes harden into crystal before she lifted her arm, the door clicked shut right before the blade made contact. "I'll cook dinner if you would like," he volunteered, feeling a little green.

"As if we would trust you with that," Charm called back as she began moving down the hall, "We'll cook."


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

SAFETY

The ride was completed in silence, all of the girls too tired from the day's actual activities to care about talking and the countries trying to understand what their homes had been turned into. Armies were killing citizens, citizens were so infected that they were turning into creatures of madness. Alfred felt his heart tighten and his eyes become wet with tears and for once he didn't feel ashamed, knowing that the others were feeling much more of the same.

After the group finally came back to the armory unpacked all the loot that they had stolen and wrapped Italy in a soft blue blanket that Bee tossed in their general direction, they felt their energy disappear. All of the men collapsed onto the cold metal floor, wrapping themselves up with their own limbs attempting to stave off the chill that was setting into their bones that had nothing to do with the cold. This couldn't even be possible, they couldn't have been falling apart this thoroughly without them noticing something, right?

Charm sighed, shooting Bee and Storm a look over from behind their backs. Bee shrugged back, not knowing nor frankly wanting to know what was wrong with them; she had been the one that had killed something today and she was the one that had an excuse to be this tired. She moved to her cot, sitting down on it with a sound plop and unsheathing her sword and drawing a rag from on of her piles and beginning to wipe it, pointedly ignoring the group.

Storm looked over to her sissy again, raising a brow in question, when her sister immediately put her finger to her nose and quickly disappearing into one of the multitude of doors. She glanced over at the group, desperately at Bee who was ignoring her as well (knowing that she would be attempting to get her help which she refused to give). Groaning loudly, she shook her head and moved quickly over to the group, plopping down next to the small Italian boy.

She could hear him sniffling, his form shaking slightly, she sighed again before suddenly wrapping her arm around him and pulling him to her chest. "Stop crying, it's going to be fine," Storm sighed, scratching him slightly on the arm as the man stiffened.

"This is horrible," Feliciano sobbed, suddenly turning into the warm chest of the woman. He clung to her desperately, knowing that the others had tired of his crying by now…he had done nothing but cry the first few nights and he had never seen a zombie. Now he tried to hold it in but that thing had tried to eat him and it was so disgusting and it was supposed to be a person! One of…

"I know," Storm whispered soothing him, rocking slightly, "I know…it'll get better…"

Feliciano paused for a moment, sure that the woman was a mind reader…until he realized he had been whimpering the words out loud. Not only out loud he realized, but in the comforting arms of a girl that swore along with her group that this was a non-personal relationship with he and his friends. "Why are you comforting me…I was loud and broke the rules," Feliciano cried, clinging to the girl tighter.

"Yeah, we all did in the beginning," Storm sighed, leaning her cheek against his hair, "We aren't completely heartless."

"You guys don't seem to have any problems anymore," Lovino replied, his voice sounding spiteful.

"Anymore, no," she replied, her voice calm even as she heard Bee loudly clench her fist around her sword, "When we first started…I would cry a lot…it gets easier just give it some time."

Feliciano nodded obediently, sniffing slightly and refusing to move away from the comfort that the girl was holding him. "Thank you, bella," he mumbled, pushing closer to Storm.

"You guys really didn't know anything did you?" Bee asked from her cot, suddenly placing the now clean blade on the ground and grabbing a lighter to light the dirtied cloth aflame.

"About what?" Arthur questioned, looking over at the girl sharply.

Arthur knew he should have guessed that the girls would mistrust him, he was a gentlemen completely aware of the females attitudes at all times but he hadn't expected it to be this extreme. Did they really think they were playing dumb? Had they had this happen before? What was this poppy cock that they were spilling now? Was it just a trick to…he almost laughed at the hypocrisy of his statement now that he thought about it. He didn't trust people…and from recent events they shouldn't trust him either…him as a person or him as a country.

"About the government or the zombies…nothing really," Bee looked up at him with a sigh, putting out the flames with an extra shoe nearby.

Ivan opened his mouth to deny the accusation, he knew everything about his government down to the last detail…except he apparently didn't. He finally realized that he had spent so much time arguing with Alfred before all of this that his government was better, that's Alfred's was hiding so much from him, that his government wouldn't never do such a thing; except his government had. At least Alfred had known there were secrets, he however had been living in this dreamland where he had known all things and it was just a lie. They had sent him here and then deserted him, killing his people, hiding themselves away while others starved and fought for their lives.

"Nyet," Ivan said finally, shaking his head and averting his eyes, "we did not know anything…we have been hiding for a very long time."

"Well now you know," Bee sighed, looking up with tired eyes that should have never been on the face of a girl as young as she was, "The government is trying to kill us, the people are trying to kill everyone, and then the zombies…at least we know what to expect of them."

"They aren't zombies," Frances disagreed, looking up sharply, "they are just infected. There can be a cure."

"There is no cure," Bee said sternly, glaring at the man, "They aren't sick, they are dead. They eat people. This isn't a cold."

"You don't know that!" Arthur shouted at her suddenly, standing up with his hands fisted at his sides. They didn't understand. They couldn't understand the idea that the people, people that were a part of them, made them who they were, were dying every second. There had to be a cure, because if there wasn't they might as well all die right now.

"I do," she shouted back, standing herself, not missing a beat as she glared at him without blinking, "Like I said, this isn't a sickness! This is something that takes you out of your body and makes you into a creature that kills everything in your path. When you are bit you aren't there anymore, you aren't a person! You are a zombie!"

"Does saying that help you sleep at night when you kill them?" Frances asked coldly, watching as her eyes grew vacant.

"Every single one, because I know it's true," Bee agreed, "I would never be able to fight…I would never be able to kill if it wasn't true."

"Dude," Alfred broke in, placing his hands on both Arthur and Frances's shoulders making them jump slightly, none of them had even seen them stand, "Enough."

"He is right, that is enough fighting," Ludwig hissed, placing a hand on Feliciano's back, "They are being nice enough to take us in. They saved us, we owe them respect."

"Technically," Gilbert broke in a teasing voice, grinning over at Bee's still stressed face, "if it was back in the old days we would owe them our lives and be forced into slavery!" Gilbert moved quickly wrapping himself around Bee's shoulders, "Tell me mistress would you have me warm your bed tonight?" he asked in a mock, high-pitched voice.

Bee tried, Storm could see on her face that she had tried along with every country, to keep her angry, straight face. She knew that it almost worked, until suddenly the albino man swooned on her shoulders making her have to catch him…or an attempt would be a better description, considering that in the next moment she had landed on Gilbert's chest on the floor. A grin broke across her unwilling face and laughter erupted from her lips that was loud enough to echo in throughout the entire room.

Storm felt herself smile, chuckling under her breath in a way that made Feliciano look up at her curiously, tears still in his lashes. She smiled at him, hugging him gently before loosening her grip on him. She hadn't heard Bee laugh in a long time…well six weeks…but considering they all used to laugh together so often it was a long time. She supposed being to 'endure' these men for a while to get a few laughs, it was worth it if enduring is what she would even call it in the first place.

Charm chose that time to exit the kitchen, a smile on her face as she caught sight of the pair of laughing people on the floor and Storm cradling the crying Italian. "Dinners done, better get it while it's there!" she smiled, leaning her hip against the door jab.

"What's for dinner?" Storm shouted in excitement, attempting to ignore the fact that suddenly all the stomachs around her were growling.

"Noodles of course," Charm chuckled at the groans and the loan cheer from her sister.

"NOODLES!"


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

FATIGUE

The countries had assumed that Charm may had been joking about the noodles, Storm's exuberance matched with Charm's sly smile had almost made them smile at the 'joke'. Until the girls had quickly escaped into one of the adjoining rooms, metal and bare except a wooden table with several mismatched chairs surrounding it, with a large pot of steaming noodles in the center. Bee's groan echoed through the room once more, one they usually would have echoed…except the fact they had been surviving on everything that was in their pockets for over a month, so desperation overruled the echoing complaints.

"It was the only thing we had enough of to spare and from their stomach growls that gave us away all day we needed a ish ton of food," Charm snapped, hands on her hips, "and none of you complain about anything, we are giving you our shelter and food and we will expect you to help us in return."

The group nodded obediently, watching as Charm stirred in flavor packets that would probably turn the bland noodles into tasting like over salted, mushy chicken. "Sit down…if you guys can all fit…" Bee trailed off counting the number of men compared to seats, noting that they were lacking at least four for everyone.

"Don't worry we can stand or sit on the floor," Ludwig explained with a casual wave of his hand, doing his best to ignore that they were about to be served noodles on McDonalds plates by three virtual strangers out of a pink pot no less.

"I know the plates are ridiculous, right?" Bee said, appearing next to him suddenly.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and she flashed him a knowing grin, "It was the only ones that survived the hassle," she laughed, watching as he blushed.

"I don't see you complaining when you eat off of them!" Storm grumbled, arms crossed over her chest with a pout on her face.

"Yes, you do," Charm disagreed, scooping the noodles out and onto the plates with a steady hand, "almost everyday."

"Not in front of the guests!" Storm scolded, taking the first plate and plopping into a chair.

"Why not? We do it any other time," Bee quipped, walking forward and swiping the plate from in front of Storm and snagging a bite.

"It's true," Charm agreed, smiling as she began to actually pass around the plates.

The countries found themselves smiling, which they almost found odd. They had known at times over the past weeks of this happening they had pretended to be normal, smiled and joked, sometimes they fought, but everything made them upset in reality. Now, in the middle of complete madness, seeing what would have been one of Alfred's own citizens consumed, just had a large argument about the people being gone and almost been attack and yet they were smiling true smiles.

Maybe it could have been they the exhaustion from their lack of sleep over the weeks finally reaching their brains when they now had a safe place to sleep or the fact they were finally eating. Then as they thought more on it as they sat around the table, Alfred, Ludwig, Ivan and Gilbert perched on the edge of the table, that it was the girls. The three of them sitting around in a normal fashion, eating dinner like the college students that they probably once were and stealing bites from each plate like they were all something different to enjoy, that made them happy. It made them feel as if hope was not lost, just hidden.

"What are you guys staring at?" Bee asked bluntly, gathering all three of the girls' eyes on them.

"Uhhh," Alfred was the first to respond, his hand going back to rub at the back of his head, "nothing dudes…it's just we've never seen you guys act so chill, ya know?"

"You didn't think that we could always be 'on it' right?" Charm questioned, lowering her chin slightly and raising a brow in disbelief.

"Well…" Alfred felt himself blush.

"From the way you guys usually act, heck yes," Gilbert broke in, saving Alfred from his utter embarrassment, "I mean all day today you guys have been on us and barking orders, necessary orders, but still orders."

"What did you expect us to do, let you run around like idiots?" Storm asked sharply, "I mean seriously, you guys would have been like chickens running around without their heads."

"Hey!" Lovino puffed up his cheeks, "We wouldn't have been that bad!"

"You would too!" Bee disagreed, "You didn't know about Clickers so you would have been running around screaming and gotten yourselves killed."

At the mention of the Clicker everyone grew silent. That was the needle that popped the bubble that had been the idea of normalcy, that there were not people outside of the door trying to kill them. "Do you think that the normal people have a chance?" Feliciano whispered, looking down into his serving of noodles, suddenly not at all hungry.

"As long as there are people there is always a chance," Charm said bluntly.

"People always get counted out if something like this happens, like on the movies or something, ya know?" Bee agreed around another bite of noodles.

"People are just stubborn, we'll pull through," Storm smiled, looking down at her cleared plate a little mournfully until Bee suddenly places her own on top with a disgusted face.

"I do not know how you still enjoy this crap," she groaned, leaning back in her chair, "We'll defiantly have to look for something not cardboard resembling next run."

"I'll make sure to put that on the list," Charm chuckled finishing her own plate and looking around the table at the men doing the same, "You guys are doing the dishes."

"What?!" Gilbert whined suddenly, making Bee jump and elbow him in the stomach.

"You heard her, dishes, do now," Storm handed him her plate before escaping the room quickly with her friends.

"How is this fair?" Arthur complained, puffing out his cheeks.

"They did make the food," Frances sighed, gathering some plates, "We should get it done."

"Si!" Antonio cheered his agreement, jumping up, "with all of us washing it'll take us no time!"

"Shut up tomato bastard," Lovino snapped, crossing his arms across his chest, "let's get it done so I can take my siesta."

"SIESTA!" Feliciano cheered rushing into the kitchen, "Let's hurry!"

"Feli! We don't know where the stuff is!" Alfred called attempting to call him back.

"You'll figure it out!" Charm shouted from the other room.

"How?" Ivan asked back.

"Your problem!"

"Of course it is…"

It hadn't taken the nations long to wash the dishes, well, not long for them. They were exceedingly grateful for the fact that the plates were in fact plastic…very hard plastic that was in fact impossible to break. By impossible of course they all meant the fact that they had been thrown against the walls, hit over Frances's head and then thrown in the sink.

"I hope none of those were broken," Bee said, pulling out some free blankets from another side room and tossing them at each of the countries.

"Storm is a little attached to those," Charm chimed in with a chuckle, "Those are her plates that she had for…too many years."

"They survived," Arthur grumbled, almost seeming disappointed as Frances looked over and stuck his tongue out childishly.

"He hit me in the face with them!" Frances complained, jerking a fluffy, pink blanket around him.

"Oh yeah they are very good for that," Bee told Arthur, "when one of these two get sassy I just bop them on the head."

"And then Charm threatens to send me to hug her and we are even," Storm calls out from her cot with a smile, looking up from a book that had no dust jacket so it lacked title.

"Hugs…are threats?" Feliciano asked his voice quivering with confusion.

"To introverts they are," Charm sighed, plopping down on Storm's cot and taking the book from her hands, "It's almost bedtime.''

"Correction, it is bedtime," Bee called, tossing Ludwig the rest of the blankets for him to pass out to the others before lying in her own cot and pulling on her blankets.

The countries looked at the floor, Ludwig pointing to spots on the floor and naming were each country would sit, hoping that he was placing the correct countries next to each other to avoid fighting. They all sat obediently, Ludwig giving them blankets as they sat for their seats. The girls hadn't brought them pillows, Ludwig hadn't expected them to even have extra blankets let alone pillows, he was just happy that they could be warm. "Thank you," Ludwig said sincerely looking up at the girls that had suddenly pulled their mattresses together.

"Da nada," Bee yawned, rolling onto her side and pulling a pillow next to her chest.

"You speak Spanish?" Antonio asked, sitting up, suddenly excited.

"Fairly well," she agreed, "I took three years in high school, two semesters in college. Storm took French…"

"I speak remedial French, aka, I suck but I can read it and understand it when I can hear it," Storm stretched, leaning back against the wall.

"I speak Japanese," Charm volunteered with a smile, "I took it in college too."

"It's good…to find someone who can speak my language," Kiku smiled back, though his voice was full of sadness, "I thought I wouldn't get to use it again."

Charm's smile suddenly dropped, she guessed that she wouldn't have understood what it was like to not to be able speak her first language. She honestly hadn't even thought about the fact that some of these guys probably didn't know if their families were still alive or if anyone from where they were from was alive either…that's when it hit her, that pang of pity for them and the thoughts that they may not have a home anymore…they were just like them.

"You could probably help me get a lot better then," she told him brightly, attempting to help him find a bright spot.

"I would love that," he felt something in his chest tighten suddenly as the girl watched him.

"Sissy, bed time," Storm groaned, throwing herself over her own mattress and onto Charm's lap, "Stop flirting with the guy we found in the woods."

"Well, it's your turn to turn off the lights," Charm scolded, shoving her lightly, "I'm waiting on you."

"MOVING?" she groaned, rolling over on the floor dramatically.

"Yes, moving," Charm agreed, kicking her lightly.

"Fine," she pouted, jumping up and swiftly turning off the lights and rushing back to the mattress and throwing herself on it, "goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" the two called back, several of the countries answering in their own native languages before silence enveloped them, quickly followed by sleep.

It was silent for hours, completely silent except for a few random noises of shuffling and snores that were echoing from the sleeping people. The hours were passing quickly, though the girls unused to company awoke every so often from a too loud snore or a shuffle that didn't come from one of them. Then there was a small shout that echoed through the darkness jerking Charm out of her sleep.

She didn't move, her hand reaching under her pillow to clutch her shiv, she knew that she wasn't specifically good at hand to hand but in an emergency... Suddenly an echo of sniffles joined the snoring. Charm sighed, releasing her grip on the shiv and sitting up to stare into the darkness in the direction of sniffs.

She knew the high-pitched noises…or rather she had a great guess on who was crying in the corner. Standing, she wrapped herself up in her blankets around her, and willing herself to move silently between the mattresses, it seemed that both Storm and Bee were still sleeping soundly…they needed the sleep after today. Moving quickly to the man's side, side-stepping any people that were littered in her way and then plopping down next to him.

"Feliciano?" Charm questioned softly, making sure that he was really the one crying.

Sure enough a weak voice answered from under his blanket, "I didn't mean to wake you," he sniffed again loudly.

"Oh yes," Charm sighed, attempting to see the man in the darkness (dramatically failing but still attempting), "I care terribly."

"You need your rest, go back to sleep, bella," Feliciano attempted to order her away.

Charm shook her head at the pathetic attempt that Feliciano gave to sounding brave and strong, sighing loudly. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulling him to her side, "Did you have a nightmare?" she asked, not allowing him to wiggle away from the sudden hug to her side.

"It was horrible," he whispered the affirmation into the silence, "it…it hurt my friends…they aren't…"

She felt him bury his head into her neck much like he had done to Storm's chest earlier that day…well yesterday she supposed. The giving of comfort was natural to her, she knew that but she was growing a little anxious at the access breathing on her neck during this time, then again she refused to push him away. "I can only imagine," she responded, rubbing her hand over his arm in a comforting gesture.

"I'm sorry, I'm being cowardly," he whined, turning his face away from her skin to look down (she was ignoring the sudden rush of relief at the movement), "it's just…I was always scared when things were normal…if my friends had left me…if they had moved on and left me somewhere they would go so much faster…I might get them killed…"

"They wouldn't want that," Charm snapped slightly, tightening her arm around him, "they are your friends."

"But…before they used to tell me to be brave and stop running away and now this… my brother is braver then me or at least he is trying to put on a brave face anyway," Feli whispered, his mind flashing back to wars that she had no idea that he was part of. Of himself surrendering in countless situations and crying for Germany whenever anything happened…how could he be brave about this when he wasn't brave against normal people?

"That was before," she consoled, rocking him slightly, "they might have told you to be brave before but they would never want you gone, it would kill them to see you gone."

"Yeah," a new voice broke in moving close to Feliciano's other side and surrounding him with warmth as she circled him with her arm, Storm smiled at him through the darkness, "you might cry but that would never mean that your friends wouldn't want you. My friends still wanted me after all the crying."

"Shut up about that," Bee ordered, sitting in front of Feliciano, "and no one would want you gone, you are adorable. You just saw a zombie, a really freaky zombie for the first time, you are going to have nightmares."

"You'll get used to it, after you learn how to deal with them the fear won't be so overwhelming," Storm added.

"And until then you can always wake us when you have nightmares," Charm said sternly, giving him one more firm squeeze before pulling away.

"We told you this isn't a personal relationship and that still stands," Bee said in a firm voice, "but you are our partners for now, don't hesitate to tell us if you are scared or something."

"We need you well taken care of," Charm agreed, sitting back on her cot.

"And if you want to stay with us tonight you can," Storm offered, "but it's not an every night offer."

"Can I really?" Feliciano asked brightly, he stood with a smile and grabbed his blanket.

"Just tonight," Charm agreed, sounding much like a mother giving into her child.

"Yay!" Feliciano cheered quietly, snuggling into a free place on someone's mattress.

Suddenly something was shoved into his arms; a long and soft pillow, "What's this?" he asked, squeezing it to his chest.

"That is also just for tonight," Storm told him, "That's my special body pillow, sometimes it helps to cuddle with something."

"Thank you bellas," Feliciano whispered, burying his face into the pillow and drifting off into sleep.

The countries had been awake, Lovino the most considering how close he had been sleeping next to his thrashing brother. This had been a hard process, especially for Lovino considering he always had been compared to his brother and his fear of the others turning that into choosing to save his brother and leaving him behind. When his brother started to thrash around, crying in his sleep it was odd…then again they hadn't had much sleep since this started.

When his brother had awoken and started to cry he had almost moved to comfort him…then he heard one of the girl's move over to comfort him. It wasn't odd that Charm had done so, she seemed to be the most…calm, if that was the right word of the group, but then the others had joined her he had felt himself go into basically shock.

Then what his brother had said…did he really think that they wanted him gone? That he was slowing them all down and they would have been better without him? While he couldn't deny that his brother drained him a little, that he was always too loud and attracting attention…but his brother, he was his brother. He kept everything light, giving them a laugh when they needed it. He was important; didn't he know that?

Then the girls actually said his thoughts, pointing out that he was wrong and then offering him a spot with them in sleep. It made him relax a little, because if anyone had a bond with them, they would probably protect them and his brother needed all the extra protection he could get…it made him feel bad when he suddenly thought that they would probably not done the same for him.

He felt his eyes start to water slightly and he sniffed, he hadn't expected the sound to be so loud in the darkness. He flinched, it had only been ten minutes since the silence fell over them again, they could still be…

The shuffling started again, not as graceful as Charm had been the first time, though that could be because this one was actually asleep. The shadowy figure suddenly bent down next to him, placing a hand on his head, flashing a smile Storm started to talk again. "Do all Italians cry?'' she giggled, he usually would have taken offense but she didn't seem to mean ill by her words. "if you want, you can come share my mattress with me. Your brother is sleeping with Charm so you can sleep with me and Blackbeard, you could even cuddle with him."

Lovino blinked in shock before sitting up, "Would you really sleep with me?" he whispered the question.

"Of course!" she nodded, "I don't just offer Blackbeard to anyone and you are scared!" She suddenly paused rubbing the back of her head, "I'm not as good at comforting as my sissy, I'm not always so good with words when I'm tired…or in general."

"I…would like that," he answered, puffing out his cheeks and huddling into himself, "I would like that a lot."

"Come on," she waved him forward, pushing him down on the mattress and thrusting a small animal in his hands, "Take Blackbeard, he always helps."

"Blackbeard is this?"

"He's a pig, now go to sleep," she ordered, turning over and cuddling with a pillow, "Goodnight."

Lovino paused, a sudden emotion hitting him…he had never thought that he would have a chance to share a bed with someone again, someone that didn't want something from him. "Buona Notte," he whispered.

"Wake me if you need me."

"I will."


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

WEAPONS

It had been a three weeks, which was about two and a half weeks longer then what the countries thought that they were going to be allowed to stay. The girls hadn't pushed them out, they hadn't forced them on runs and they hadn't judged either of the Italian brothers for sleeping in their beds for most of the first week and half of the next. They were actually quite pleasant to live with, supplying them with food, shelter and warmth while only having them doing menial jobs and hunts or runs when they wanted to pitch in.

However they girls were stingy with their guns, which was odd considering that they had literally taken over an armory full of guns. They continued to ask but whenever they asked about them they gave them a hard glare and said that they needed to earn their guns. Earning, which hadn't been done after seven or more runs and learning which of the countries works best with who… How were they supposed to earn things like weapons from girls that didn't tell them how they should do so?

They couldn't complain however, during runs they were allowed to keep any and all firearms that were found along with their own weapons and they were given free ammo for the weapons themselves. Then the groups they actually formed were great in themselves. The groups were made to suit their strengths, what they liked and were overly good at.

Alfred, Ivan and Ludwig had discovered that they were good at crafting weapons on the go and using anything at hand to fight close range zombies along with being able to stealth kill anything that got too close to the group. They had assumed when seeing this group that Bee must have lead it or maybe Charm, stealth seemed to be something that she would be good at…the last thing they expected was watching the overly loud Storm to stealth kill three clickers in one run without the other infected even noticing. Storm herself began giving them extra crafting supplies to help her with stealth killing, adding Kiku into her close range group when she finally got to see his skills with his katana. It was almost odd that she could lead the four of them so well when heading off a horde coming after the rest of their group.

The midrange was a little more diverse when it was thought of, it was a mixture of people with great aim with guns and an even better speed that could get them out of any situation and into storage areas. Bee lead the group made up of Gilbert, Arthur (who everyone, even the others, were surprised that he was such a good shot), Frances (who was much better at throwing knives at midrange then actually shooting a gun, though no one knew why), and Antonio and Matthew (who were both skilled at close and midrange but there speed knocked them over into Bee's group). The group lacked cohesion but it worked best that way, they usually split up and worked in different areas since they were all very able to take care of themselves.

The final group was long range. Charm, who was the last anyone expected to lead the sniping squad, though they should have known better with her steady hand and level head. She was often seen on top of trucks during the first runs, alone, taking out anything too far away to be seen with a well-aimed arrow or a silenced shot from a gun. It wasn't until later she finally decided to allow some of the men to attempt to join her. Yao was handy with a bow and the Italian brothers could make some mean Molotov Cocktails that had more range and could throw them further then Charm herself though she would never admit it. (None of the girls would admit that they secretly had hoped for the boys to be long range and far from trouble and the worst part would be they could see the other group was relieved as well.)

The groups however, while working together well in most situations in battle didn't seem to mesh or hang out together outside of the stress of the outside world. Alfred and Ivan both seemed to enjoy the company of their 'troop leader' as they began to call her in private (not private enough considering Charm and Bee were now calling her that as a joke and she would shrug it off) and would hang out with her both together, which the other countries were mildly surprised by. However they weren't the only ones that seemed to consistently be around the overly loud girl but it seemed that she had completely drew the older of the two Italian brothers into her web, which scared the countries even more considering the fact that both of the Italians were terrified of Ivan. The four of them were consistently loud, bouncy and consistently pushing each other into building stronger weapons that they could make out of random things they found…and drink while they did so…which everyone was a little more then a little dangerous but the others were scared to tell any of them to stop.

The Asian on the other hand were completely attached to Charm. It seemed people with strong auras consistently were drawn together. The three of them were consistently going over how to write all the languages of Asia and attempting to teach her random words and sayings. Then the one person that none of them saw hanging around the three of them almost everyday was Antonio! The man seemed to stay with the girl constantly when he wasn't running to bug Lovino he was standing over the girls shoulder and staring at her writing or asking how she was cooking, what books he should read while he was there. The two of the groups never crossed, it was always either the Asians or Antonio never at the same time for some strange reason. There was that one odd day that Antonio and Yao tried to help Charm in the kitchen, which ended up in Charm storming out and a large food fight in the kitchen and a late dinner.

The German brothers stuck together and stuck with Bee, the three of them rarely separated after Bee realized that one German had an OCD issue much like she did and a person consistently trying to hug them (much to both of their dismays) and the second had her screw everything attitude that she had some days. The three of them fit, one of the groups always pulling back or pushing the third that wasn't on their level that day. When Arthur started to come around them more often with tea that he had continued to steal from dorm rooms and Starbucks that they came across he was quickly pulled in. Bee insisted to everyone it was for his amazing tea since she could no longer find her precious coffee but everyone else knew that she enjoyed talking with him about Shakespeare and creative insults that they could make people tilt their heads in confusion.

Feliciano seemed to float, though no one was surprised about. He loved Ludwig and his brother and then Charm seemed to absolutely charm him, so he could never have chosen a group. The girls constantly dote over him, smiling brightly and talking to him about his past cooking experiences along with everything else.

Matthew and Frances however were consistently on the outskirts. None of the girls were taken with the thought of letting any of them in. Matt freaked them out with his cold eyes and willingness to rip them apart for his family, though they had a great respect for his devotion to them. Frances was just an odd one out, none of them gaining an attachment to them and none of them actually attempting to water that idea of friendship. The pair of them sat in the corner whispering in French to each other, sometimes drawing Storm's attention with certain words she understood, but it was worrisome at times considering all three of the girls knew that Storm usually only knew smart remarks, curse words and anything violent that she thought to look up.

Another run was scheduled for today, a dangerous one that had not only the three girls going all out with extra knives, guns, arrows and any ammo they could grab but a direct order/ask that every single one of the countries follow along. They weren't sure what was happening, where they were going or even what they were looking for, but the girls had continued to toss weapons at them when they had refused to even let them touch any of them before. The girls made sure to tell them several times that they were not for keeps only for this run and not to get used to having free weapons.

Yao raised an eyebrow as he belted another scoped gun that was tossed at him from Storm's direction, "What is going on?"

"We told you it's a run," Bee repeated for what seemed like the thirtieth time that day, pushing back her hair and double-checking her sword that was strapped on her back.

"You all seem more…stressed than usual," Frances said calmly, watching as Charm inspected another throwing knife before she passed it back to him.

"It's just a run," she said firmly.

"I do not think so," Kiku disagreed, watching as Charm continued to stiffly move about shelves of weapons and deciding on more ammo for her sniper rifle.

"It's just a long trek," Charm told him with a shrug, "We've never taken you this far…and the past way is wrecked."

"What do you mean wrecked?" Matt asked, looking up from double-checking the shotgun he had lifted off a dead soldier last week, clacking the barrel shut again.

"The roads we went through four months ago were completely covered in tanks, soldiers, zombies, everything…" Storm answered, sharpening her axe for a moment more before slipping it into her holder on her back, "So we tossed a few bombs, lit a few tanks on fire with some cloth and fire…we didn't expect everything to go sky high, ya know?"

"So the roads are gone?" Matt asked, his voice full of skepticism, "You guys blew up all the roads?"

"That was so not our plan," Storm groused, crossing her arms.

"But we are still going?" Arthur questioned, checking his handgun.

"There is a sewer system that Bee checked out a few weeks ago that was clear and lead directly to the city," Charm explained, standing up and squaring her shoulders, "the only problem is that the sewers are full."

"Full of what exactly?" Gilbert asked, his voice mildly concerned.

"Unicorns of course," Storm snapped, turning on them, "Clickers, infected, bloaters, whole nine yards."

"Bloaters?" Lovino broke in with his voice quivering, he and the others had heard of clickers and infected but what in the world was a bloater? It didn't sound pleasant…or wanted…

"Bloaters are…a lot of infection festering in one body for a very long time," Bee explained, sticking out her tongue in disgust, "hard to look and even harder to kill. They are like seven feet tall, loud and fat, usually they throw spores in our direction so be aware and wear these."

Storm tossed a small box in their direction, the insides were filled with gas masks. "Each of you will need one, we have our own, but some of the ones that have been decaying will give off spores and if you breathe them in you are as good as dead," Charm supplied the answer to the confused looks on their faces.

The men stiffened, none of them had heard about anything like that, it was…mildly more then a little terrifying. Alfred clenched his fist around the shiv in his hand and looked at the ground. He had never known that people had been infected that long or that those who have been infected lasted that long…maybe Bee was right, maybe they were monsters in the end.

"Hey," Storm poked him in the side, making him jump slightly, "you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine dude," Alfred smiled at her, "I just got a little confused."

"Okay…" she agreed slowly, turning back to the others, "Are we ready?"

"Well we are," Bee said slowly, shifting her backpack on her shoulders before handing Storm her own, "Are you guys?"

The countries moved slowly, nodding at them with doubt shining in their eyes as they grabbed their own light backpacks and put them on. They were used to their backpacks being light, they never packed extra weapons or ammo that they didn't carry on their person, nor do they have med kits like the girls did; instead all they packed was a little extra food and a flashlight with extra batteries in case they were separated. Today however, it seemed the girls had hidden extra supplies inside, it almost made a few of them smile as they were shown a little bit of extra care.

"We'll be back in three days time," Charm explained, "One day of travel there, around one day of rest and stocking up and then the third will be a day of travel back here. It's a basic mission if it wasn't for all the extra zombies."

"And if we run into the army while we are traveling?" Ivan questioned, his hands twisting around his pipe, "You said they were there before so there is the possibility that they will come back."

"They don't usually come back when the roads aren't there," Storm answered, moving next to him and pulling Alfred along with her, "they like to have enough protection in case of zombies and without their vehicles," she shrugged slightly, "not to mention they think that no one will travel in the city if the roads are gone!"

"Which is usually right," Bee added, "if they didn't want to go through the sewers which most don't, but we have a stubborn streak and need extra supplies."

"Well let's go while the sun is still above the horizon," Antonio announced, shifting one his feet, "I mean it should be safer from the infected right?"

"He's right," Charm agreed, sending him a smile, "let's head out." The others followed as the girl's escaped out the doors, placing the proper precautions behind them.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

AGREEMENT

"How much further until we, ya know, get out of the middle of no where?" Alfred groaned, bending down slightly to duck under a fallen telephone poll in the middle of another town in their path.

"It's only an hour walk, don't complain," Ludwig sighed, attempting to crack his neck again to relieve the tension that had taken a permanent place between his shoulder blades.

"I used to have to walk this long to school every Monday and Wednesday and then the same way back!" Storm called to him from the back of the group.

"You were just training for this," Bee chuckled, sneaking glances to the surrounding area in the most inconspicuous way she knew how.

"And yet I am still not fast," she groaned dramatically.

"We are almost there now," Charm answered, ignoring the others and her eyes not wavering from straight ahead of herself, though the Yao could see her hand had never left the butt of her only small gun that she had ever kept on her person.

"And from there we need to be focused, correct?" Frances spoke for the first time since they had left the armory.

"Yeah, because that is where we are going to hit all of the rough stuff," Bee answered, pulling a face of pure disgust.

"We have to make sure to stick together," Charm added, " a larger group might be more visible and louder but with that many zombies in one place we will need all the back up we can get."

Storm moved forward suddenly, pushing herself through the group and stopped a few feet away from the edge of an outcrop of concrete. The others paused, watching as the girl dropped to her knees and pulled a lighter and another small object from her pocket. She flipped the lighter smoothly before making the small flame appear and lighting up the end of whatever the other object was.

"Look alive," Bee hissed, her gun already at the ready as she stood next to Charm whose own small handgun was out, both of their eyes watching the edge of wherever it was that Storm was bending over.

Storm threw the object quickly down, backing away and flipping a hunting knife open and ready. The countries stood in confusion, unmoving for a moment, until a loud crack echoed through the air. A firecracker, they cursed that they failed to realize what was occurring before she had dropped it.

However, there was not much time to think about anything before screams were echoing through the air from the inside of what they now understood was the sewer pipe that they were supposed to be crawling in to get to the larger city. Watery stomping and noises were steadily growing closer as they scrambled for weapons. The creatures were scrambling up the concrete to get to the source of the noise with jerky movements before the countries had been ready to aim.

"Storm, take down the Clicker and we'll take care of the normal ones!" Charm called out the order as the Clicker had scrambled over the edge followed by several other infected.

Storm didn't hesitate to shove her way through the suddenly rushing zombies aiming for her own target as steady hands and sharp eyes took down the zombies that had teeth aimed at her neck. "You guys are going too slow," Bee said sharply, moving her gun to take down another that had jumped at Storm when she had finally gotten close enough to shiv the single Clicker in the steadily growing crowd of zombies.

"Might wanted to clue us in on what you are doing if you want help," Gilbert snapped back, leveling his gun with the head of a zombie that was just getting over the edge. He smirked as he landed a perfect shot, only to be brought back to earth when two more followed, "How many of these guys are there?"

"They were the ones at the mouth of a cave," Charm explained, taking down another to her ever growing total of dead…well really dead, "Did you want to walk in and get attacked before we could turn on our flashlights?"

"Less talkie, more shootie!" Storm shouted, moving away from the finally dead Clicker (which had a shiv sticking firmly out of the center of his head) and drawing her hunting knife again to take out a infected that had turned to face her.

"Couldn't the close range people move in?" Ludwig asked, taking down another that was moving towards their group instead of the kicking and clawing woman in the center.

"Do you want to accidently shoot them?" Charm asked sweetly, "Because we know how Storm is going to move, if they get in the center then it'll be a free for all that will probably end up with one of us dead."

The other grimaced with the truth of that statement and continued to shoot down what they could without getting too close to the one girl in the center that was apparently too stubborn to move out of the crowd of creatures or at least that's what the countries got from the grumbling come from her friends. Though they were making good leeway with the zombies themselves it seemed like the multitude of sewer zombies (at least what Alfred had been yelling about) where not going to disappear…until suddenly there was one that was left standing with a hunting knife in it's throat.

Yao watched as the zombie crumpled to the ground like paper left in the rain for too long, though it lay on the ground twitching, strange noises close to wet groans emitting from it's throat. Storm stood beside it long enough to yank the knife from it's throat before backing away and allowing Charm to come and shoot it again in the head. The twitching and noises stopped.

Yao felt his stomach clench and as he looked to the group he could tell they felt no better. The girls were still callous, cold, calculating and found the killing easy when it came to the infected…zombies…it made him nervous. They didn't seem to care that these people were once human, that they had families and people that cared about them.

A cleared throat drew the attention to the back of the group, were Bee was re-belting her gun before looking up at them coldly. Yao knew in that moment that whatever he was feeling, what they were feeling was clear on their faces. "If you don't like how things are done you can leave, but either way…" she paused, shaking her head as she pushed her way through them, "either way, this attitude will not help you survive in that sewer. If you are going to think of them as humans…"

"They were humans," Yao said firmly.

"The key word there is were," Bee sighed, moving toward the other two.

"Are you coming? Or are you guys going to split off now?" Charm asked, trying to keep her voice indifferent as she stared the men down.

"We are coming," Alfred ordered, looking to the others with clinched fists, "I just need to…"

Storm smiled softly, giving him a slight nodded, before smiling at the others and declaring that they needed to go down first either way. Yao shifted his gaze back and forth between the girls that were disappearing past the ledge and Alfred that was looking at them with fire in his blue eyes. "Alfred, you can't…" Yao tried to speak first and was cut off by him raising a hand in his direction.

"They aren't going to be fixed, Yao," Alfred's voice was wavering, pained. Yao felt the pain from the boy as if it was his own, Alfred had always been the most hopeful of them, begging for a cure instead of killing…him admitting this was huge, scary, it felt like he was ripping away his own hope. "Those people are gone, gone for good. There is nothing we can do about that. How can we possibly judge those girls for doing what they need to do? How can we leave them because we feel bad for killing people that are trying to kill us? How could we leave…leave living people…because they are surviving?

Alfred's eyes were wide, his voice loud and he looked on the verge of tears, the others were silent, "And if we kill these things that used to be part of us, mistakes we made, things that were our fault, we can help other people survive too."

Yao stared at him with wide eyes, shock covering his features, and if he could find it in him to turn his head he was sure that the others would look much the same. The speech, what he just said, his plan…it was exactly what Ivan had said before this all had went to hell. He was willingly agreeing with Russia…Ivan, the man he had hated and tormented for as long as either of them had been world powers. The plan was right; they couldn't deny it anymore.

Ivan moved forward suddenly, his face solemn, creases on his face from his furrowed brows and tight mouth. Alfred look away from him, his hands clenching again and his shoulders shaking slightly, Yao knew he was waiting for the same thing that all countries were when they admitted defeat to an enemy; the I told you so or the final strike to take them out of their misery or out of this world completely. Ivan's hand landed firmly on Alfred's shoulder, tightening slightly instead, "We will take care of them, we will stay with you," Ivan agreed.

The others stood in shock for a moment, no hostile energy was there…it was almost as if they were allies in that moment. Alfred looked up and even Yao could see the relief flicker across his face as he sent Ivan a blinding smile that the others hadn't seen since this began. "Then we should go before the others think we have left, shouldn't we?"

"Da, we should," Ivan agreed, patting his other arm with his free hand, "let's go."


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

HOSTILE

They had been wondering in the darkness with flashlights on for hours, every moment seeming like nonsense but the girls in front of them seemed sure of every step. The group took another turn down a dark and narrow off branch of the sewer system. "Do you guys seriously know where we are going?" Arthur asked.

He held back another groan as none of the girl's offered him an answer and instead turned into another line of sewer. Arthur knew he was the last one to complain, with his horrid weather and the smell that had permeated the streets during the dark ages, the smell and the wetness around him was nothing…but if they got them lost in zombie infested sewers after all that they had to deal with today he would not stand for it.

"We need to pull into our smaller groups now," Charm spoke softly, signaling something and though the countries didn't know what they moved immediately.

The water dripped down steadily and the girls hadn't taken a step since the order was given, it was almost like they were waiting for something. Arthur shifted slighted, earning a sharp glare from Bee. "What are we waiting for?" he hissed at her.

"You must really be getting old," Frances whispered back, his eyes sharp and unmoving from in front of him, "can you not hear that?"

"Hear wha…" Arthur paused when the sound finally reached his ears.

The soft clicking, several sounds of sharp clicking…Clickers and from the sound there had to have been several of them piled into the tunnel in front of them. How could they make it around those creatures without someone getting hurt? Darn it all, he wished that they knew if a country could be infected or not by this virus, that would make everything so much easier.

Then he heard the hushed whispers coming from the front group, the shifting of backpacks and the whispering of numbers. What was the close range group thinking? That couldn't possibly think that they could beat at least twelve Clickers without getting hurt, there were only four of them. "They'll be fine," Charm whispered, clutching at his arm to stop him from moving forward; he hadn't noticed that he moved to stop them.

"What do you mean?" he hissed, glaring back at her, how could she be so calm about this. Her friend could be killed so quickly.

"Trust them, they know what they are doing."

The close combat group was moving now, the small splashes of water allowing the others to hear the group moving slowly forward, attempting to be as silent as possible when facing the blind creatures. Alfred ducked behind a crate, Storm edging along the side of the wall away from them, Ivan following her movements and finally Ludwig ducked behind another crate that was much closer to the creatures. Silence was key right now and the worst part of any of this was that three of the four of their group were never good at being silent.

Ludwig tightened and then readjusted the grip he held on his shiv, touching his side slightly to check his other weapons to make sure that they were ready to use. His heart rate skyrocket, much like it did during any of the other fights, but this was much more dangerous, one bite and he was done…or one of his allies would be. He heard Ivan throw the bottle across the room instead of saw it, the Clickers immediately going crazy.

He watched them rush the wall, clawing at the ground were the shards of the bottle had landed before a second hit the opposite wall making four of them rush away while the others continued to dig for a person that wasn't there. This was it, separating them was the only chance they had without getting anyone hurt and without more shelter around the room to hide.

Another bottle and another pair separated from the original group, the other four still standing in the opposite corner. Ludwig took another deep breath this was his turn now, to throw the brick in the correct place to set his group of Clickers up. Taking a quick peek around the crate, making sure that the course was clear before throwing another brick at the wall.

The Clickers were going insane, the groups of the Clickers to a much more manageable groups…but now they had to kill every one of the clickers without allowing them to make a noise, which was almost physically impossible. Then two bodies hit the floor with a pair of loud splashes, at least one person was already moving…shit, he was running behind, this was nothing like him.

He threw himself into motion swiftly, spinning around the Clicker without it turning away from the corner or the second Clicker that was digging it's hands into the ground. A swift shiv into the head ended it's sad life in ten seconds and the second hadn't even noticed before he had dug the knife into it's skull as well, slick blood type liquid sliding down his arm making him shiver with disgust.

He had almost tuned everyone out around him, clearing his own Clickers had been his job, and now he was just staring at his hand. The infected blood was running down his arm like syrup would run from a maple tree; that alone made the quality of it unreal. Something in their blood made it seem to thicken and turn into the eerie black substance running over his arm that he couldn't seem to take his eyes away from.

It was only in the back corner of his mind did he realize that he had killed the Clicker incorrectly; that the blood shouldn't be allowed to cover his skin like this and that the girls had trained him better then this, that he could be infected from any open wound. The irony of that hit him squarely in the chest; he had always so ready for battle against humans in the past, so strict to stick to his training. He clenched his fist tightly, allowing his nails to bite into his skin. He shouldn't be alive when it was so unlikely that anyone in the human race was going to survive, he should have disappeared…he should have…

"What are you doing, you moron?" Bee hissed at him, grabbing his wrist and attempting to wipe away all evidence of blood that she could reach.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Charm added her own words in a quiet voice, glancing around quickly before passing Bee another rag that he had known was meant for first aid or more Molotov Cocktails and instead these very venerable human girls were using it on blood that could infect him…when none of them even knew if they could be infected.

"Open up your hand now," Storm ordered, prying his fingers away from his palm so that Bee could clean there as well, "I told you never let their blood get on you like that, were you seriously ignoring me when I was telling you guys that stuff?"

"Don't touch you face or any wounds you could get until we get to that hospital," Bee told him, tossing the rags to the ground after the girls had cleaned their own hands again, "We need to disinfect that."

He nodded stiffly, looking at the girls with cold eyes, he could see himself reflected in Bee's irises. Ludwig hadn't known he could look so old, but he had been wrong… _shiza_ he couldn't let himself live if these girls were killed when they were with them or ever if he was honest with himself. He had lived for so long and these girls were going through their youth fighting for their lives alone, _verdammt._

"We have to keep moving if we want to get there before dark hits," Charm waved absently ahead, "No more stops."

The others nodded, their eyes slipping back and forth between Ludwig and the women, not knowing which they should watch. The girls began to move however, which made their decision much easier, so all eyes watched Ludwig who was still staring blankly in front of him. "Hey, bro," Gilbert spoke first, gaining his bearings as he moved to Ludwig's side and grabbing his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"We can't let them die," Ludwig whispered the words, but his voice was fierce.

"What?" Gilbert jerked back slightly, thinking that his little brother should have been the last of them to gain such a protective streak over these girls.

"We can't let them die," he repeated harshly, suddenly looking to the others, "They are so young and yet they are alone and fighting. We are…we are all so old, we've fought so long and done things so unforgivable that we should have disappeared before. Yet we are still here. I've failed my people and my country, so many things… They can't be another one to add to my list. I will sooner become infected myself then allow another human to be killed in front of me when I could have stopped it."

"We had no plans on letting them die," Kiku said quickly, his hand going to his katana, "they have taken us in and fed us, it would be dishonorable to let them down."

"Seems like some manners have stuck with you," Yao grumbled, though his voice held no heat.

"They are…our amigos," Antonio agreed, sending him a smile, "you don't let friends die."

"Especially in sewers," Frances agreed with a wrinkled nose.

"Then we should really stick to them then, because they are kind of gone," Matt pointed out with a slight smile.

"Come on dudes," Alfred declared quietly…well as quietly as Alfred could be as he rushed after them, the countries shared a small look before following.

Walking away they all shared the same thought. A strong connection with a human in this situation could not end well, not well at all.

They had been wondering for at least four more hours, they were all sure that the sun had to be going down by now outside the sewer where time actually mattered. Down here on the other hand, the girls hadn't stopped for a moment in their trek through the stinky murky waters that were around them, not even to grab a something from the pack that they had packed to eat. Following the dim, yellow glow of the flashlight bulb they moved through rooms filled with debris and zombies without stopping even for a moment, it was almost as if they had a time limit.

"It's been seven hours down here," Arthur mentally calculated, "one more above the surface and we had started the day around 11 this morning, which means that it has to be six in the afternoon."

"We are going to stop soon," Charm told them, glancing back with a smile, "We need to grab a snack before we finish the last of this maze."

"Thank goodness," Storm groaned, stretching her arms above her head with a loud yawn, "my feet freaking hurt."

Arthur heard a chuckle from the Italian twins, probably both of them for once happy they didn't have to complain about the trouble. "What do you think is up ahead?" Arthur questioned, tilting his head.

"Nothing good," Charm answered bluntly, shaking her flashlight as the light wavered, "we have been able to sneak past almost everything so far, well except the beginning stuff, but it gets worse the deeper you get in."

"It get's worse then Clickers?"

"We already told you that there were Bloaters down here," Bee broke in, turning her head so that they could see her raised brow.

"Do you really think we will run into one, bella?" Feliciano asked, his body tightening with anxiousness.

"Don't worry," Storm smiled back at him, "we'll protect you!"

"Let's stop here," Bee broke in suddenly, giving the group enough time to look around the crates that were stacked around the room…as if someone had been stacking them for something just like…

"We have been working on this room for a while," Charm smiled slightly proud, as if she were looking upon some great masterpiece.

"You three have been working on all this alone?" Alfred sounded in awe, touching the crates as gently as Arthur had seen him do anything in years, "How did you get all of these down here? They have to weigh ten pounds a piece."

"We…" Bee coughed suddenly looking away from the crates and down to her feet. Arthur would have swore that this girl would have almost looked sheepish if he didn't know better.

"We weren't originally alone," Charm finished, attempting to draw their attention to her instead of Storm, who was placing a gentle hand on Bee's back. "We had other's with us, they helped."

Everyone paused, taken aback for a moment, they had assumed that they had been the first to join this group. The girls weren't exactly welcoming and on top of that seemed completely overprotective of each other and all of their supplies. That final thought made Arthur pause, the though suddenly coming to him that they may not have been this way…could they have been…

"What happened to the others?" he asked the question boldly, ignoring the pointed looks he was getting from the other countries. He knew this was important, something that they should know.

"Sorry, you have to be a level four friend to unlock our tragic backstory," Storm answered, not missing a beat in closing off the idea of this conversation, but her answer said enough, they had been betrayed.

"They weren't good people that you were with, were they?" Matt asked, apparently refusing to let go of the conversation…Arthur sighed to himself, Matt had certainly changed since this all happened, that must have been what happened to these girls too.

"Two of them were," Bee answered sharply, leveling a glare with Matt, "but we lost the others too."

"So you were betrayed and lost people?" Arthur asked slowly.

"We are in a world made up of a bunch of monsters, you are always going to lose people," Charm answered stiffly, "it's a part of life now."

Arthur felt the sting of her words, the pain that was arching through them to admit that they were alone. "But you made it through," Antonio added, hoping to lighten the situation with his normal cheer.

"Not completely in one piece as you can all tell," Bee snapped at him, leaning against some of the crates, Storm at her side.

"I doubt anyone would," Arthur sighed, looking at the girls with sympathy in his eyes.

"Sit down and eat some food or we will start going as soon as we are done," Charm snapped, pulling off her backpack quickly and digging through it for an extra granola bar.

The countries grew quiet then, not doubting the statement in the slightest, they knew the girls would leave them behind. It was almost funny to Arthur, the thought that they could, as a matter of fact that they should leave them behind; they were only slowing them down. He was sure if they had been alone the women would have been well past their destination by now and already setting up for the night. He sighed, leaning back against the crates; he wasn't very hungry anymore.

"You either, aru?" Yao questioned, appearing at his side.

"They make us seem…incompetent…" Arthur bit out the words as if they were physically painful.

"I guess for now we kind of are," Yao shrugged as if he was unbothered but Arthur knew better. He had been around Yao for centuries and he could see the stress line between his eyes and the tightening of his mouth that he only did when he was truly frustrated.

"There has to be something we can do to help," Arthur grumbled, crossing and uncrossing his arms.

Yao tightened his lips again, looking straight ahead into the darkness in the tunnels behind the group. Something was going on in his head that even Arthur couldn't decipher, so instead he sighed and allowed Yao to meddle through his thoughts for a few minutes. Then he sighed loudly, Yao was taking too long, "What are you thinking, Yao?"

"Maybe there is something that we could do," Yao nodded his head forward into the darkness, "We could move ahead, give them information about what is ahead…"

"Do you think that would help?" Arthur asked, standing a little straighter, though hope was bursting through him. Maybe for once in this hell he wouldn't be useless, he knew that compared to some people in this group he wasn't as bad off but it was nothing like the old days, when he was a pirate…hell even after that, he was a powerhouse! He was amazing and now he was nothing!

"Of course it would help!" Yao said fervently, "They need to move forward and they are only…" he paused on the word human, worried that his words might be overheard by one of the girls.

"Do you want to tell the others?" Arthur raised one large eyebrow at his friend.

"The more of us that sneak ahead the more of a chance is that we would get caught," Yao disagreed immediately, sneaking glances around, "We are the ones that have the best chance of getting away without noticing."

Arthur nodded stiffly, he understood Yao in this, and Yao was just like him. Yao wanted to regain his glory too; he didn't like to be so helpless either. This was there only chance he supposed for either of them to regain anything…they were useful too. "Let's get going then," Arthur agreed, bending down slightly and checking the women.

The girls were huddled together, facing only each other and the wall beside them, giving the pair a huge blind spot to sneak through. They exchanged a look, nodding before sneaking past the girls, none of the other countries bothering to look away from any side conversations or introverted thinking to look up at the elder countries sneaking away.

They made their way around the corner, moving as stealthy as they could before standing back up to their full height. Arthur smiled brightly over at Yao, stretching his tight muscles before turning back to the darkness and flipping on a flashlight. It felt as if a weight was lifted off of his stiff shoulders suddenly, like he wasn't being forced to do anything, there were no expectations, he felt…free.

"We should just go a few tunnels ahead," Yao explained, his eyes suddenly serious, "We might not know the way back and the others will notice, we only have a few minutes."

"Of course," Arthur chuckled, attempting to sound cocky, "Only three tunnels and then we turn back."

"Sooner if we run into anything," Yao added, "there is no way we could use our weapons without them noticing."

Arthur nodded again, a short movement that was barely perceivable but he knew Yao noticed. Arthur was the first to move, leading the way with his flashlight down the empty tunnel then down another. He almost smiled, allowing himself to relax further knowing that there was most likely nothing ahead of them if two tunnels were deserted already, not only that but likelihood that any of the infected could have been this quiet was highly improbable.

"Do you think we should go ahead one more? Or…" Yao questioned, looked down tunnel as they reached the end.

The pair paused, it had only been a few minutes but this tunnel was now reaching a dead-end, a dead-end with two tunnels leading in the opposite directions. Arthur didn't know how long they could be walking before they reached the end or what they could run into…they could always split up, but that idea almost made his skin crawl with the thought, but if they wanted to explore the tunnel… "We need to split up," Arthur sighed, looking both ways with his flashlight.

"We can't see the ends," Yao added, moving to reach into his backpack, pulling out his own light and a gas mask, "put your own on too, we don't know what could happen."

Arthur shivered slightly, the thought of needing the gasmask…of running into those spores. He took of his pack quickly, shoving his own mask over his face just like Yao was doing with his own. "Be careful," Arthur whispered the words, as if something were listening, "we don't know if we are immune to this stuff yet."

"You take that side," Yao answered, ignoring the question completely, motioning his flashlight to the left then to the right, "I'll go this way."

"In 60 seconds we turn around and meet back here," Arthur added, tightening his grip on the flashlight, "no exceptions."

"We'll head back then and report anything to everyone else," Yao threw back the comment before walking away, splashing his way through the muck that covered the water.

Arthur stared at him a moment more, making sure to take in the sight of his friend as much as he could before turning away himself. Fear spiked through him as he began to move down the tunnel. He counted slowly in his head to calm himself he moved the flashlight back and forth between the walls, leaving nothing unchecked from the water to the ceiling itself.

He had been walking exactly 39 seconds when he saw the air start to cloud with a green gas. He cursed, suddenly glad of Yao's paranoia of the air and the spores that all of the women were talking about beforehand, but he continued forward. Then he saw the bodies…

They lined the wall, six of them ripped into blood pieces and scattered on the concrete of the tunnel. Their bodies decaying and rotted, spores pouring from their bodies as they continued to mildew in the watery depths. This wasn't right…there was something…A roar echoed through the air behind him, loud and deep, causing his entire body to quake with fear before rapidly turning away from the bodies to face the end of his tunnel.

It stood there for a moment, the creature that allowed Arthur's light to stay on it's form, allowing him to truly see what he was facing. The bulbous creature stood in the water, green and oozing more and more green liquid from protrusions if they were wounds caused by the fallen or veins that once pumped blood through human organs, he wasn't sure. There was no face to speak of, just a face and several disk like things that were making up his head like a flower of sorts. It was only then that he noticed that several of them made up his thick arms and legs, jetting up from it's back and stomach, he felt ill. A smell of death and decay reached his nose as the creature turned to him and yet he was frozen for a minute more.

The creature lifted it's arm, throwing something in his direction that exploded with a huge amount of spores. In that moment he finally got the feeling back in his legs and he ran, splashing through the water, he was breathing rabidly, his lungs burning. He lost were he was counting, he didn't know if Yao would be where they were supposed to meet, where should he run? He couldn't run back to Yao, he could get him killed! The group would have a better chance at survival but on such short notice…

"Arthur?" Yao called his name, it was only then that he noticed that he had made it back to their meeting place.

"Run!" he screamed the word, his voice hoarse but Yao got the message.

He could see the horror dawning on Yao's face, the widening of the eyes behind his mask was all he could see but he was sure his face was twisted in disgust. He turned then, taking off in the direction of the group and the choice of where to run was made. "Guys!" he screamed the word and it echoed through the tunnels. Logically they both knew it would draw the attention of every infected in the area, but this would kill all of them if it got too close. "There's a…" He heard him cut off, unsure of how to continue, he didn't know the names!

"What did you do?" Bee's voice was the first they heard as they reached the group.

"It's coming!" Arthur screamed back at them and he watched as their eyes went behind him widening with horror.

"Masks now!" Charm shouted, digging through her cast aside bag to grab a cocktail.

The others wrapped their masks around their faces, almost in sync with each other and just in time for another object to burst out thousands of spores around them. Charm seemed to ignore everything as she lit the end of the cocktail on fire, throwing it towards the end of the tunnel. The creature screamed as it lit up with flames, shaking it's massive body and throwing out more spores, stomping into the water as if it were trying to dose the flames.

"Throw another one, what are you doing?" Storm hissed, but none of the countries moved, frozen into place as the creature began it's movement forward.

It's body was blackened with dead skin and burnt flaking outer shell, it was grotesque in everyway and yet none of them could move to fight it. "We shouldn't have brought them here," Bee hissed under her breath, yanking a bag away from the Italian brothers and tossing another cocktail to Charm, "Keep going!"

Charm hissed out a frustrated nose before lighting a second and tossing it again in it's direction. More screams and burning flesh, more fear…they couldn't move…they had been through wars, they had set actual people alight like this and yet they were so afraid. Then after a third it stopped. The creature fell to the ground with a loud splash and then there was no movement.

The countries finally turned, they finally could move and now they could see the women stood in front of them…they were…protecting them. "We shouldn't have brought them here," Bee snarled for a second time, her hands tightening into fists.

"Maybe not,'' Charm agreed, looking down at her hands for a moment, noting that she had burnt some of her fingers in her haste.

"What I want to know is what did you two do?" Storm snarled.

"We told you to wait!" Charm agreed, crossing her arms and turning on them.

"So tell us, what did you do?" Bee asked again, glaring down at them.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

ALTERCATIONS

The countries were silent, staring at the girls in shock and mild disbelief. They had never heard them raise their voices, well they always heard the girls being loud but never at them, and yet here they were yelling at them. Francis looked away, towards the wall, the water everywhere but at those girls' faces because behind that rage and frustration they looked thoroughly disappointed.

"We didn't…" Francis tried to start talking, but Charm raised her hand to silence him.

"We aren't talking about any of you!" Storm shouted at them, turning on them quickly, "Clearly you guys aren't idiots!"

Francis slammed his mouth shut immediately, looking in the same direction as the women, towards Arthur and Yao. He could see the embarrassment on Arthur's face, but Yao was unrepentant, not wavering his gaze. "What were you guys doing? You could have gotten everyone killed!" Bee hissed, crossing her arms and glaring at them.

"We needed to see what was ahead or we would have went in blind," Yao shrugged, completely unrepentant.

Francis tightened his fists; this idiot were going to get them killed or worse kicked out of the armory…then they would be ripped to shreds. These girls' eyes were steely, dark and stormy, like they were ready to punch the man in the face. What was Yao thinking, his face was completely smooth, no emotion in sight and he had seriously almost killed them!

"We knew what was ahead!" Charm yelled, throwing out her arm violently, "That bloater has been here since we started using the tunnels! Those things are too hard to kill and if they grab you, you are not going to survive! We were taking precautions! That's why we stopped here! We go through the pipes from here on out!''

"There's another one in the other tunnel further down if you want to really try to kill us because now we are almost out of Molotovs!" Bee added, her hands going to her hips as she glared the man down, not even bothering to look at Arthur whose face was down turned in shame.

"If you would have told us that we wouldn't have went there then," Yao shrugged again, his voice level.

"You didn't ask!" Storm answered, her voice echoing down the tunnel, "Besides we were trying to spare you guys having to see that! You were already upset enough about the people that were already Clickers, did you really want to see that there were people that were literally that bad?"

Francis heard Feliciano whimper, his brother suddenly whispering encouraging words to his brother to stop him from garnering the same wrath as Yao. They had all frozen after all. That had to incur something, right? After all they were dealing with creatures who waited for things like this, waiting for a moment when everyone was frozen to attack and if they were lost the girls would most likely get hurt or at least lose supplies.

"Don't you dare do anything like that again," Charm ordered, suddenly moving forward and shoving her finger into his chest, "you do that again and you are not welcome back."

"You would kick me out for trying to help you survive?" Yao barked at them, suddenly sounding furious, shoving her arm away from his chest his posture aggressive.

"No," Bee snapped back, moving to stand next to Charm, "we would kick you out because you almost killed every single person here!"

"Your family and ours," Charm added, "every single person here could have been killed. You don't know what you are doing and you of course felt no remorse. If we hadn't have known how to kill that thing, if we hadn't tested this out, we would have all been dead."

"And you can't say that we are overreacting, you saw that thing."

"We would have been able to escape through the tunnels that we had just went through," Yao disagreed with a casual wave of his hand before crossing his arms.

"Do you really think we would have been able to fight through all of those things we bypassed?" Francis felt himself suddenly shouting, moving forward, "Even if we did out run that thing we would have had dozens more."

"Francis, that was necessary!"

"No, that was an uncalculated risk," Kiku interjected.

"We would have all been killed," Lovino whispered, putting an arm around his brother.

"And it would have been your doing," Francis accused, he knew that his eyes were flat and hard when Yao jerked back away from their accusation.

"I…" Yao attempted to stutter out some sort of words, possibly an apology but he couldn't get it out of his throat.

"We need to keep moving," Charm sighed suddenly, all the fire suddenly leaving her voice, though her posture was no less stiff and her aura was no less sharp, "we need to get out of her by nightfall or we are all screwed."

"It's about another hour of walking," Storm added, suddenly moving over to the Italian brothers and handing Lovi his bag, "We should get going before the other one realizes the noise meant food."

"We'll take the tunnel they cleared out," Bee sighed loudly, "it'll be a little quicker and a lot less climbing."

"But we'll have to be quiet and stick together, no more hero stuff," Charm agreed, shouldering her own backpack.

Francis felt himself nod stiffly, sure that the others were doing the same; making sure that they wouldn't get that same disappointed, angry look in their direction now that they themselves were out of anger. The others were shuffling, pulling on bags and watching the ladies for their order to leave, but the ladies didn't move. Charm and Bee facing the crisped Bloater and Storm shouldering her own backpack next to the Italian brothers, though none of them failed to notice that she was slipping more Shivs into her belt loops or made sure that her bat was close at hand.

"Let's go then," Bee finally broke the silence moving around the creature, everyone following close behind, "stick together and if something happens keep following us, we know these tunnels."

"Oui," Francis choked out the word, glancing back at Yao who suddenly wasn't moving, he probably didn't have the energy, "Are you coming, Yao?"

Yao nodded, turning slowly and moving to the back of the group, trudging behind. "Remember guys, quiet," Bee called back, leading the group before she and Charm shouldered guns that were once at their sides, "and be prepared."

It had been a long trek, well an hour long, but that still felt like forever to Ivan. He wasn't used to the heat, the moisture, the…anything in Kentucky in all honestly. It was even harder considering how many small spaces that he was attempting to squeeze through with these girls, it was an understatement when he said by the time he reached the surface that he was aggravated.

"Where are we?" he called to the ladies in the front, attempting to adjust his scarf to a more comfortable position without making him even more overheated.

"In the middle of Lexington," Bee answered, shielding her eyes from the setting sun, "We need to get to the hospital and stock up before the sun sets."

"Hospital?" Antonio paused, glancing up in shock, "Why would we be heading there?"

Ivan almost chuckled at the man's stupidity. He was sure that the man had immediately jumped to the conclusion that one of the girls were injured, possibly sick, but he couldn't possibly think of stocking up. Ivan knew about hard times, knew about them very well, and he knew that that's what these girls were clearly preparing for…and with more people there was triple the risk that they could all get sick or that they would all get injured when they were on a run.

"We need to make sure we have medicine and stuff incase anything happens," Storm answered casually, sending the Italian brothers another smile.

Ivan noticed he watched her often, all of the girls actually, but her a lot more then the others. She had not strayed from either of those Italians sides since the Bloater had occurred, smiling at them and attempting to cheer them up. He knew that both of the boys were shaking, mentally in shock and attempting to stay normal but they were failing…much like the others.

His Yao had not said one word since the others had cut into him with their words, trudging behind them. Alfred was still pale, his hands never leaving his gun that he had kept at his side, his twin mirroring that stance. Arthur and Frances stood close together, speaking in low voices that made Ivan sure that Arthur was still ashamed of his actions. Kiku and Antonio seemed to be fine, even-tempered and calm as they moved forward, Antonio teasing the girls and Kiku adding in witty comments when he found the aura correct.

"Hey!" Ivan jumped, mildly startled by Storm's voice suddenly next to him.

He blinked down slowly at her, watching her smile at him slightly, "Are you okay?" her voice was softer then normal by far, so clearly she saw something on his face that he didn't.

"It is just uncomfortable, being in such small spaces, when I am not," Ivan answered with a shrug, moving his hands up to wipe away more sweat.

"You also aren't used to this heat huh?"

He looked her up and down slowly, noting that the Italians had followed her closely…well one had, Feliciano was now attempting to hang himself over Charm's back and Bee's shoulders. She raised an eyebrow at him, looking towards the scarf and back up to his face, then to his shoulders and his feet, looking for something, but he didn't understand what… "I understand, you are trying to distract me," Ivan chuckled slightly, smiling at her.

"Usually that helps with the heat," she shrugged, not denying it in the slightest, "Are you claustrophobic? Bee is too, if you are. Or do you just not like small spaces because you are so tall?"

"It is most likely the last one, Russians do not fear anything," Ivan said thoughtfully, working over the thought that he might have been indeed scared of small spaces, before casting the thought aside.

"Well if you weren't so freaking tall it wouldn't matter," Romano snapped at him, though there was no real anger in his words.

"I suppose that is true," he agreed with a shrug and a smile that sent the Italian shivering and clinging to Storm.

"One day I'm going need a ride on your shoulders," Storm said simply, her voice stern as if she was giving him an order.

"You…want a ride on my shoulders…?" Ivan repeated the statement slowly, his brain muddled. In all of his life he had never had someone say something like that to him, most were too scared to even joke about him giving them what Americans would call a piggyback ride.

"Sissy will probably want to too…and probably Bee…" she said the words thoughtfully, finger under her lips as she really considered the words, "You look strong enough to pick us up so it shouldn't be that big of a problem."

"So you are…"

"Serious?" she guessed the end of the question, "Deadly, I like being tall."

"Ha!" Romano laughed loudly, "You and your friends are defiantly not tall."

"That's the point you jerk," she scolded him in a teasing voice, "I like pretending to be and Ivan is really tall!"

"So you are my friend for piggyback rides?" Ivan questioned, his voice sounding serious.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, bumping him with her hip.

Ivan paused, not physically of course; they couldn't waste that much time, but mentally. These girls were odd, brave, all three of them. Now that he thought about it though fighting zombies may do that to a person. The three of them would talk to him without shivering, Storm had actually hugged him while Charm and Bee apologized for her being so touchy and loud. The girls would joke with him, unfaltering even when his 'dark aura' would come out…it was odd.

"We are here!" Bee announced loudly, sounding excited for the first time that day.

"Finally!" Alfred groaned.

"Let's head inside then," Charm smiled at him, shifting slightly so that Feli could open the door and still cling to her arm.

The group shuffled inside, Storm, Lovino and himself were almost inside when he stopped. Grabbing her arm swiftly, making her jerk to a stuttering stop and spin to face him. He watched her face go quickly from fear to calm when she realized it was only him…that was another new experience for him. "It isn't a problem," he said swiftly, attempting to give her a real smile but only succeeding in grimacing.

She smiled brightly at him suddenly, grabbing his arm with a tight hand, "Good," she answered, pulling him inside of the building close behind her. "I'll expect that piggyback on the way home."

"Da," he agreed, sending her a half smile, trying to ignore the warm feeling of companionship in his chest.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

MEDICAL KITS

There were so many stairs, Feliciano could almost feel his feet trying to fall off from all of the walking, but he refused to pause so that he could keep up with Bee. She was walking swiftly up the stairs, Charm immediately falling behind and taking up the middle of the group flanked by Ivan, Storm and Lovino. He wasn't used to going so quickly after all of this time, he had been placed in the long range weapons long enough were he hadn't needed to run and now he was regretting it.

…the thoughts of that thing weren't helping either…it's face and roar kept popping back into his mind, making him flinch and cling tighter to Bee's side. He couldn't help the fear that skittered across his spine or the cold sweat going down his back and Bee was so much like Germany…no, no, he had to remember to call him Ludwig.

He sigh in content at the thought, briefly considering running back to his friends side and clinging to him but he knew that he would be gently pushed away. Now that he thought about it, that was something Bee would normally do too, but for some reason she seemed to be a lot more…welcoming to him touching her right now! Maybe she was getting used to it! Maybe he could do it more! Maybe he would even get to cuddle with her tonight!

"Mmmm, cuddles from a pretty lady would be very nice," Feliciano cooed burying his face into Bee's shoulder, nuzzling her arm.

"I hope you are not talking about me," Bee's voice broke into his happy images of cuddling against her wrapped under a blanket, maybe with the other girls surrounding him…how nice.

"Are you in there?" Bee chuckled, tugging at her arm lightly, trying to release herself from his hold.

"But bella, why can't I cuddle with you," he whined, looking up at her with teary eyes.

"Personal space? Introvertness?" Bee answered his question with two of her own, tugging at her arm again.

"But bella," Feliciano whimpered, pulling a puppy face that both Charm and Bee had told him didn't work for Storm and wouldn't for him either, "what if that thing comes back? What if there's another one!"

Bee stopped suddenly, planting her feet firmly on the ground in front of the final floor platform and turning on him sharply. Feliciano stared at her blankly, after almost tripping over her feet from the sudden stop, watching as her eyes grew hard. She yanked her arm out of his hold only to grab his shoulders firmly, "They aren't coming back," she said firmly, "they will never come back and they will not touch you. Do you understand?"

Feliciano nodded meekly, the firm sound of her voice and the assuredness there made him undoubtedly trust her. "So you'll protect us bella?'' he asked with a slight smile.

"We won't need to," she answered, her voice sure, "You'll be able to protect yourself from those things before you run into them again."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she agreed, tightening her hands lightly before pulling away and turning to the door, "Now this is our floor."

"Finally!" Storm groaned loudly from the last platform, drawing everyone's attention back down to the lower floor.

Feliciano felt his mouth drop open and Bee slapped a hand over her mouth to stop the giggling from escaping her lips at the scene in front of her. Ivan stood on the last platform, both Charm and Storm on either side of his back, each clinging to a shoulder. Romano was still holding onto Storm's sleeve as he flowed closely behind the group and Ivan seemed completely unaware of the extra weight as he stood staring up at the others in front of him.

"We were about to go in, da?" Ivan asked, tilting his head with a smile, "What is so funny?"

"You seem to have grown a few more heads," Gilbert said, motioning towards he girls.

"They are very pretty heads though," Francis chuckled, blowing kisses in their direction, making the girls grimace.

"No one wants your kisses you pervert!" Lovino hissed, stepping in front of the girls and Ivan with a scowl.

"I believe that the little Italian is correct," Ivan smiled, his aura going evil and creepy, "I also believe that the lady was walking us into the floor to stock up on the medicine."

"I was," Bee agreed, still laughing despite the shivers that seemed to be affecting the other countries, "Feli and Al…and I would say Ivan but he's carrying people, I need help opening this door."

"Got it," Alfred shouted, jumping up the steps and making his way through all of the countries on the small stair case.

''Thanks for the ride Ivan," Charm grinned, watching as the countries were yanking at the door in attempt to open it.

"It helped a lot…then again I'm just lazy and would've ended up crawling," Storm smiled.

"That would've taken forever! We would've been done by then," Bee grunted, yanking at the door again and making a loud squeal from un-greased hinges it finally gave and inched open.

"Then there would've been no reason for me to climb stairs," Storm countered.

"And then we would've had no blankets because I'm pretty sure you are carrying a lot of those," Charm disagreed, attempting to smack her from the other side of Ivan's broad shoulders.

"Warmth is important," Feliciano called back, "It's very cold here at night, nothing like Italy."

"I want to go there," Bee groaned, "At least then the weather won't change as much."

"Doors open!" Feli exclaimed, watching as Alfred finally opened the door fully, revealing a gray dusty hallway.

"Let's go then," Bee ordered, entering the hall way without hesitation or looking back.

"Okay!" Storm cheered, attempting to jump down off of Ivan's shoulders and onto the ground in time with Charm.

"Ivan!" Charm suddenly turned back, waving him down to their level as he bent at the waist. "Thanks."

"Yeah, thanks," Storm agreed, both of them sharing a look before they bent forward both planting a kiss on his cheeks, "Now let's go loot stuff!"

The countries stared after the girls, all of them still being turned enough to watch the scene of affection between the two and Ivan of all people, mouths agape in shock. Ivan hadn't moved, shocked into place and a slight blush on his cheeks. "Did that just happen?" Kiku asked his voice flat but his eyes wide in shock.

"I am pretty sure it just did," Arthur agreed, blinking slowly.

"And they would not take my amore from the country of love?" Francis shouted dramatically, "The pain of rejection is strong within my heart!"

"It's okay, mi amigo," Antonio chuckled as some of the countries trickled away into the hallway to escape the ranting of Francis, his hands rubbing Francis's shoulders comfortingly, "they'll come around."

"I doubt it," Gilbert chuckled, offering Francis his hand to pull him off the floor, which he eventually took, "but I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya."

"Let's go before the others forget about us!" Antonio announced running into the hall the others following him quickly.

Finally Ivan was the only one standing in the hallway, still bent at the waist and blush still in place. He reached up slowly; rubbing both of his cheeks with his hands as his smile grew wider…he guessed that the girls really did like him…how strange, he thinks that he likes it. Finally he moved, walking slowly up the steps and into the hallway behind the group, the warm feeling in his stomach coming back in full force.

Lovino trudged down the hallway in the middle of the group, this was so stupid and the hall was so crowded with clutter and trash and people and…his toe slammed into a cement block. His yelp echoed through the hall as he jumped up and down on one foot, clutching the foot in his hands. This was hot, crowded, and painful…he stood slightly corrected and on one foot.

"We all told you that you needed to find a steel toed paired of boots," Charm said, appearing behind him silently…like magic. He cursed again, he hated when she did that and she was always so good at moving silently.

"Those things are the most tacky and ugly things that ever came out of the United States and that's saying something," he hissed, glaring at her as he continued to jump on his single foot.

"Well me and my friends came from the United States so it evens out right?" Charm chuckled, hands on her hips, "Also you are holding up the group by standing in the middle of the hall."

"I guess that is true bella," Lovino smiled, attempting to seem flirtatious but everything came out sounding pained.

"Flirting doesn't work on me," Charm smirked back at him, cocking a hip, "half the time I never noticed before anyway and now I just don't care."

"Everyone cares when an Italian flirts with them," Lovino shouted, completely outraged. How could this girl be so obtuse about men? Not caring about flirting! An Italian flirting with them, that was something American girls dreamt about for years!

…until this happened, he supposed that zombies were much more important then men…but she should still care! Lovino slowly put his second foot down; testing to make sure that his foot was fine before looking over at Charm with a raised brow. "You still need those shoes," Charm continued, looking down at his Italian leather shoes and back up at his face, "especially, if you are going to keep those shoes so nice. Considering that you and your brother's shoes are probably the last ones on Earth…at least worn by living people anyway."

Lovi swallowed thickly, looking down at his shoes, he had never thought about that. He never thought about his shoes, everything he had from his home, everything was the end of his home country as he knew it before. "Hey?" Charm's voice was closer to him this time; he hadn't even noticed her moving, "Are you alright?"

"'m fine," he mumbled, looking to the floor determined to ignore that his eyes were shining with tears.

"You are such a bad lair, you would be better off doing what Bee does and just avoiding those," Charm sighed, poking his side firmly, "now tell me what's up with you."

"No, it's fine bella," Lovi shook his head firmly, ignoring the tears and attempting to focus on the mission that was at hand. He was working with normal humans now, hell he might be a normal human now too, and they needed medicine. "Come one let's get some medicine before some of those things show up."

"You know that we'll pull through right?" Charm called out to him as he walked away, allowing both her and him to notice that the others had somehow moved around them and onto the adjoining hall.

"Of course we are bella," Lovi answered, throwing a casual hand movement in for emphasis, "pretty sure the three of you don't want all the supplies you've given us to go to waste by us being killed by something other then you."

"Well that's true," Charm agreed, laughter in her voice as she finally realized why they had all took to the more mildly grumpy Italian so quickly (besides the fact that he was adorable), "but I meant the human race, not just us."

"And why do you think that?" Lovi asked quickly, facing her and her optimistic view that he had cast away when they had ditched him in the middle of nowhere, "Everyone is dying, why do you think humans will pull through?"

"Because we humans, we are a little more then stubborn, how can you not think that we'll pull through," Charm shrugged, rolling her eyes at Lovino's pessimism.

"And why do you sound so positive?" Lovino asked harshly, he felt his hands shaking.

How can she be positive? She was alone, sure she had her friends and a place to stay but…His eyes were full of those damned tears again! All of these girls were like this, all of them acting like life was completely normal and joking when they were inside of the armory and then even when they were fighting…when they were fighting sometimes even then they were joking and goofing off. This woman was so sure, so sure that everything would turn out alright…how could she…

"Because we have to be," she told him starkly, her eyes suddenly lowered to the ground too, "I mean, what's the point of forcing ourselves to survive all of this nonsense if we don't think something good will come of it?"

Lovino felt himself jerk in shock; suddenly he was staring at her dumbly, feeling absolutely nothing. That made sense, everything now, he understood. They were positive, she was positive; they were so happy and normal because that was the only thing holding them in sanity, hope.

"We should go follow the others, I mean, they can't make the kits without the person that usually makes them," Charm said dryly, nodding forward to the new hall.

He nodded, still staring with wide eyes and making no move to turn back around. So Charm moved instead, past him, before turning back around to grab his arm, "Going to stand there until something comes to get you?" Charm asked.

"Okay," Lovino turned, both of them finally following the others down the last hallway and into the infirmary.

"Finally," Bee chided, glancing up from one of the several metal cabinets that she and the others were digging through that were lining the walls. "You guys were gone forever!"

"Bright side we found the stuff!" Storm cheered, grabbing another drawer full of sterilized needles and tossing it onto a ratty table.

"We could…" Ludwig broke in, suddenly blushing in embarrassment as everyone turned their eyes to him, "help you with the kits."

"We have awesome medical experience!" Gilbert shouted his addition, as he grabbed another armful of medicine and tossing it onto the table with the needles and several other items that the guys were digging through.

"We brought the boxes, might as well all fix them," Charm agreed, grabbing her pack and digging through it to yank out some of the plastic boxes that they were using for kits.

She spread them out on the floor before sitting in front of them, glancing up at the guys still staring at her, "What are you guys doing?" she raised her eyebrows, "There are more in your packs too. Get those out and put the stuff on the floor so I can reach it."

"Everyone is helping," Bee continued, starting to move the items to the floor, Storm helping, "well…except us…we aren't good at this stuff. We are more shooting and breaking things."

"So you have no medical experience at all?" Antonio questioned, turning to stare at the pair instead of the girl sitting on the floor.

"None at all," Storm agreed, placing the needles on the floor in front of Charm as well.

"And you've let them not have any?" Arthur asked in shock, "Seriously, you do all the medical stuff and they have no idea?"

"Sissy has issues with blood and Bee doesn't have the interest," Charm shrugged, opening the boxes and starting to move the needles into the cases, "and you all still haven't moved to help…"

"Oh right," Antonio agreed as the counties went into a flurry of motion and drug out their own boxes and settled on the ground, "but we have to fix the lack of healthcare understanding."

"Good luck with that," Charm muttered, turning back to the supplies, "So do I need to tell you what goes where or do you already know?"

"Explain your system," Ludwig answered immediately, lining up his boxes equal length apart before looking back up at her.

"Okay…so three needles to each box and then three doses of penicillin and then two bottles of…."


End file.
